Annie Snider and Debra Kahn, E&E reporters

Greenwire: Thursday, March 12, 2015

FREMONT, Calif. — Environmentalists and developers have been battling for years over the fate of a salt production site on prime south San Francisco Bay real estate. Now, the Army Corps of Engineers’ top lawyer has quietly accepted developers’ argument that the site is out of reach of the Clean Water Act. The new and controversial legal interpretation is rocking federal agencies at a key political moment.

ENDANGERED SPECIES:

Scott Streater, E&E reporter

Greenwire: Thursday, March 12, 2015

Leading experts on the greater sage grouse warned the Obama administration today that it must take stronger, more scientifically sound steps to protect the imperiled bird and avoid the need to place it on the endangered species list.

ELECTRICITY:

Peter Behr, E&E reporter

EnergyWire: Thursday, March 12, 2015

The Energy Department has begun an inquiry into the vulnerability of large power transformers that are crucial to U.S. electricity delivery, officials confirm. The study could lead to a strategy for expanding a strategic stockpile of spare transformers to help the grid recover from major cyber or physical assaults or solar storms and other natural disasters.

SCIENCE:

Gayathri Vaidyanathan, E&E reporter

ClimateWire: Thursday, March 12, 2015

Evidence that humans have surpassed nature as the shapers of change on the planet is omnipresent, scientists say, and some say that shift marks the beginnings of a new epoch for the planet called the Anthropocene. But determining just when that epoch begins is a difficult task, and the ultimate arbiters of this shift would be geologists, who have yet to agree on assigning a date to the start of the Anthropocene Epoch, if it is formalized.

TRANSPORTATION:

Brittany Patterson, E&E reporter

ClimateWire: Thursday, March 12, 2015

Airships, which are best known today for their use as advertising blimps, have long been recognized for their potential as large, low-emissions transportation vessels that can haul huge amounts of cargo into areas without the need for runways or other infrastructure.

BUDGET:

Nick Juliano, E&E reporter

E&E Daily: Thursday, March 12, 2015

It’s been just over a month since the Senate voted on climate change, clean energy development and environmental protection, but that’s too long for some Democrats, who are eyeing an upcoming amendment marathon to secure a fresh round of roll calls on those issues.

AGRICULTURE:

Tiffany Stecker, E&E reporter

E&E Daily: Thursday, March 12, 2015

Of all of the conservation groups that could irk a senior GOP senator from North Dakota, Ducks Unlimited isn’t an obvious example.

NEWSMAKER:

Katherine Ling, E&E reporter

Greenwire: Wednesday, March 11, 2015

The new leader of the Department of Energy’s innovation agency loves The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous tale about a high-risk, high-reward search for dragon’s gold.

NOAA:

Emily Yehle, E&E reporter

Greenwire: Wednesday, March 11, 2015

On a recent afternoon, Gregg Houghaboom pointed to a photo of a fish fillet and asked a room full of ocean experts to identify it.

HOUSE:

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

E&E Daily: Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Since taking the Natural Resources gavel two months ago, Rep. Rob Bishop, 63, has brought a sense of humor and even humility to a committee that has fought bitter battles with the Obama administration and had more than its share of intramural brawls. The Utah Republican, at times, has been merciless, too. A year ago, he criticized a National Park Service official for delivering some of the dumbest testimony I’ve ever heard about a bill to rename a peak in Yosemite National Park. But while Bishop is likely to fight much — if not most — of the administration’s energy and resource agenda, his adversaries credit him for opening lines of communication that were all but cemented shut over the past four years of GOP rule.

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