Whales and Sonar: Environmental Exemptions for the Navy’s Mid-Frequency Active Sonar Training

Mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar emits pulses of sound from an underwater transmitter to help determine the size, distance, and speed of objects. The sound waves bounce off objects and reflect back to underwater acoustic receivers as an echo. MFA sonar has been used since World War II, and the Navy indicates it is the only reliable way to track submarines, especially more recently designed submarines that operate more quietly, making them more difficult to detect. Scientists have asserted that sonar may harm certain marine mammals under certain conditions, especially beaked whales. Depending on the exposure, they believe that sonar may damage the ears of the mammals, causing hemorrhaging and/or disorientation. The Navy agrees that the sonar may harm some marine mammals, but says it has taken protective measures so that animals are not harmed. MFA training must comply with a variety of environmental laws, unless an exemption is granted by the appropriate authority. Marine mammals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and some under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The training program must also comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and in some cases the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). Each of these laws provides some exemption for certain federal actions. The Navy has invoked all of the exemptions to continue its sonar training exercises. Litigation challenging the MFA training off the coast of Southern California ended with a November 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court said that the lower court had improperly favored the possibility of injuring marine animals over the importance of military readiness. The Supreme Court’s ruling allowed the training to continue without the limitations imposed on it by other courts. (pdf contains 20pp.

Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline: Legal Issues

[Excerpt] In 2008, TransCanada Corp. applied for a presidential permit from the State Department to construct and operate an oil pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border in a project known as Keystone XL. The Keystone XL pipeline would transport oil produced from oil sands in Alberta,Canada, to Gulf Coast refineries. The permit application was subjected to review by the State Department pursuant to executive branch authority over cross-border pipeline facilities as articulated in Executive Order 13337. After several phases of review, on November 10, 2011, the State Department announced that it would seek additional information about alternative pipeline routes before it could move forward with a national interest determination. In response, several pieces of legislation were introduced, including Title V of the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011. Title V dictated that President must grant the Keystone XL pipeline permit within 60 days of the law’s enactment, unless the President determined that the pipeline is not in the national interest. If the President did not make a national interest determination and took no action to grant the permit, then the law provided that the permit “shall be in effect by operation of law.” The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 (P.L. 112-78), including Title V addressing the Keystone XL permit, was enacted on December 23, 2011. Pursuant to the requirements of Title V, on January 18, 2012, the State Department recommended that “the presidential permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline be denied and, that at this time, the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline be determined not to serve the national interest. ”The same day, the President stated his determination that the Keystone XL pipeline project“ would not serve the national interest. ”New legislative activity with respect to the permitting of border-crossing facilities, a subject previously handled exclusively by the executive branch, has triggered inquiries as to whether this raises constitutional issues related to the jurisdiction of the two branches over such facilities. Additionally, as states have begun to contemplate taking action with respect to the pipeline siting, some have questioned whether state siting of a pipeline is preempted by federal law. Others argue that states dictating the route of the pipeline violates the dormant Commerce Clause of the Constitution which, among other things, prohibits one state from acting to protect its own interests to the detriment of other states. This report reviews those legal issues. First, it suggests that legislation related to cross-border facility permitting is unlikely to raise significant constitutional questions, despite the fact that such permits have traditionally been handled by the executive branch alone pursuant to its constitutional “foreign affairs” authority. Next, it observes generally that state oversight of pipeline siting decisions does not appear to violate existing federal law or the Constitution. Finally, the report suggests that State Department’s implementation of the existing authority to issue presidential permits appears to allow for judicial review of its National Environmental Policy Act determinations

Bullying: Dilemmas, Definitions, And Solutions

Bullying has become an increasingly serious problem in today’s schools.  Many states have passed legislation to ensure schools do all they can to prevent and address bullying.  Even though the school is a place that is to be safe for all children, in some instances this is not the case.  This paper discusses bullying and focuses on the different tactics students who bully use at middle levels.  Educators can prevent problems by becoming aware of where bullying takes place and how educators can cope and confront this problem.  Discussed are tactics to create new programs and policies and what process it takes to implement the most sound and fair policy in a school.   Different roles and procedures are discussed to help educators include all stakeholders in the process.  Detailed analysis and descriptions are presented and differentiated and various plans to be implemented are described

Eating Disorders Among Adolescents And How Educators Can Recognize Symptoms With Possible Strategies For Solutions

Eating disorders is a problem that receives too little attention. These disorders have a great impact on student relationships, self-esteem, health, and achievement. Administrators and teacher leaders must take the initiative to think proactively and intervene

Vanishing Horizontal Sea Surface Temperature Gradients at Low Wind Speeds

Sea surface temperature (SST) is a result of multiple interactions in air-sea processes. During days with strong insolation and low wind speed, there may be uneven net heating of the water layer near the surface of the ocean, when there are horizontal temperature gradients at the sea surface. Cooling of the water caused by evaporation, sensible, or longwave radiative, heat loss would be greater from warm water compared to that from relatively cold water. As a result, under low wind speed conditions and clear skies, the horizontal SST discontinuities, occurring at fronts, eddies, or in storm wakes, may diminish or even vanish. This phenomenon is illustrated here with some field and modelling results. The dependence on latitude and mean environmental conditions of the difference in warming on the cold and warm side of SST discontinuities is explored. The time dependence is important for the impact on remote sensing of SST, and it is found to be short enough that substantial masking of SST gradients can occur during the first six hours of the diurnal heating cycle, but the effect would continue to grow if calm and solar heating persist for several subsequent days. An integrated effect of this uneven net heating is seen in the seasonal masking of subsurface temperature gradients in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits

Shared task proposal: Instruction giving in virtual worlds

This paper reports on the results of the working group “Virtual Environ-ments ” at the Workshop on Shared Tasks and Comparative Evaluation for NLG. This working group discussed the use of virtual environments as a platform for NLG evaluation, and more specifically of the generation of in

The 2010 Oil Spill: MMS/BOEMRE and NEPA

This report reviews the environmental procedures required following the explosion of an oil well on a tract leased by BP from the federal government

The Gray Wolf and the Endangered Species Act (ESA): A Brief Legal History

This report provides a brief history of the laws, regulations, and lawsuits related to the wolf's protected status. Fuller analyses of the concepts discussed in this report can be found in the companion report

The Lacey Act: Protecting the Environment by Restricting Trade

Report that looks at the history and applications of the Lacey Act, which allows the U.S. to enforce the laws of other countries

The Lacey Act: Protecting the Environment by Restricting Trade

This report looks at the history and applications of the Lacey Act. As it stands now the Act, via a 2008 amendment, allows the U.S. to enforce the laws of other countries as well. One currently proposed legislation would limit application of the law to specific wood products, while another would eliminate any reference to violations of foreign laws and end criminal prosecutions for violating the act