Peregrine falcon making comeback in New York

Environment & Energy Daily has a good story today about the resurgence of peregrine falcon populations in New York. It's worth your time.

Obama to name career BLM employee to lead agency

President Obama will name Bob Abbey, a career BLM official from Nevada, to lead the nation's largest land management agency, reports the Las Vegas Sun.

Abbey was the BLM's state director in the Silver State for eight years. He was recommended to the administration by Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Senate GOP Blocks Deputy Interior Secretary Nominee

President Obama's nomination of a deputy secretary of interior continued to be stalled in the Senate Wednesday as Republicans rallied to defeat a cloture motion.

David Hayes, who would be Interior secretary Ken Salazar's number two, cannot take the job for which he has been chosen until the filibuster is stopped and confirmation by the Senate is secured.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said that the filibuster is aimed at convincing Salazar to explain further his recent decision to cancel certain oil and gas leases in the West.

The vote on the cloture motion was 57-39. Sixty votes are required to stop a filibuster.

Key Dems Announce Breakthrough on Climate Change Legislation

Arguments in the House Energy & Commerce Committee over whether to charge utilities for initial pollution credits needed to support a "cap and trade" carbon dioxide regulatory system, as well as the amount of reduction of carbon dioxide emissions required by 2020, have been settled.

According to a report in Roll Call, the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) have reached a deal on those contentious issues.

The article quotes Waxman as saying the committee will move on to a mark-up of the climate change legislation next Monday, with the bill being formally introduced on Thursday.

Under Waxman's agreement with Boucher, the bill would grant electric utilities free initial emission credits and require that the nation achieve a 17 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.

Yet to be determined is the amount of renewable energy required to be in each utility's portfolio of sources that will be included in the bill.

The measure is expected to include further assistance to the auto industry, as well as a "cash for clunkers" program that would grant consumers trading in low gas mileage vehicles a voucher toward the purchase of a new vehicle.

Supreme Court Requests Additional Briefs in Alaska Clean Water Act Case

The Supreme Court wants more information before deciding an Alaska case posing the question whether mine tailings may be lawfully dumped in a water body.

The Court issued an order Monday asking for supplemental briefs despite having heard argument in Couer Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Inc. on January 12.

The issue in the case is whether a Bush administration regulation authorizing disposal of mine tailings in "waters of the United States" violates the Clean Water Act, which would require the polluter to get a permit if the material is deemed to be a "pollutant," subject to the requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or "fill" material subject to the wetlands permitting provision of the law.

The particular dispute involves a proposed gold mine north of Juneau. The Army Corps of Engineers granted permission to the mine operator to dump waste materials in Lower Slate Lake. The federal district court in Alaska upheld that decision, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed.

Obama Administration Revokes Bush ESA Rule

The Obama administration has revoked a controversial regulation that eliminated the long-standing requirement forcing government agencies to consult with biologists at the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries when proposing an action that would impact a species listed as endangered or threatened.

Interior secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce secretary Gary Locke, in immediately revoking the last-minute Bush administration regulatory change, used power given them by a provision in the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act. In addition, President Barack Obama had directed the cabinet officials to review the Bush ESA regulation.

The Bush administration's regulation was finalized in December 2008 and took effect January 15, 2009.

Obama signs big land conservation bill into law

President Obama, only in the third month of his tenure, has signed into law one of the largest land conservation bills in U.S. history.

The Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, which includes the largest expansion of the National Wilderness Preservation System in at least 15 years and creates a new category of protected Bureau of Land Management lands, had bipartisan support.

Among the controversial aspects of the mammoth new law is a provision allowing a road to be constructed across Alaska's Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

The Washington Post has the story.