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News & Events
Mark B McClellan, MD, PhD - Physician Insurers Association
This text contains Dr. McClellan's prepared remarks. It should be used with the understanding that some material may have been added or deleted during actual delivery.
Speech before
Physician Insurers Association of America
Remarks by
Mark B McClellan, MD, PhD
Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration
May 24, 2003
Thank you for your kind introduction. I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you today. I'd like to begin by conveying the appreciation of the President and of Secretary Tommy Thompson, both of whom are deeply committed to improving our medical liability system.
This is a special time for our health care system, a critical time. On the one hand, we are on the cusp of some unprecedented breakthroughs in health care. I'm sure you are familiar with some of the recent breakthroughs in drugs and biologics, as well as innovative new combination products like drug-eluting stents. As a result of these changes and other improvements in our health care system – more specialized medicine, better decision support systems, and the like – millions of patients who come to their physicians with severe coronary artery disease can not only hope for a long and high-quality life – they should expect it. More targeted and less toxic medications for cancer are now allowing millions of patients to beat this disease, or at least hold it off, without all of the pain and suffering of traditional chemotherapy.
And the future might be even better. Today, public and private investment in biomedical research and development has grown to unprecedented levels. As NIH research has doubled in the last 5 years and private sector research has doubled within the last 10, we are starting to bring genomics, proteomics, and other new sciences into the development of better treatments for patients. New avenues of research hold the possibility of developing truly individualized, highly effective medicine.
These unprecedented medical achievements have been worth literally many billions of dollars in avoided medical costs, and are worth much more in better health. And the potential for even greater breakthroughs in the future has led many to call this the "biomedical century." But with this progress have come concerns about rising medical spending and access to quality care.
More than ever before, rising costs threaten to price the benefits of modern technology out of the range of many of the patients who most need it. And there are other threats to access to high-quality care as well. There is no question in my mind that these pressures are going to increase, unless we all take steps together to improve our health care system. For the sake of the public health, we must find fundamentally better ways to achieve a health care system that addresses the growing problems of cost and access without sacrificing the great potential of medical care today and in the future.
I've been in Washington a few years now, and I remain an optimist that we are making real progress on these issues. Agreeing on how to solve these problems is not easy going, because health policy is contentious. Yet there are smart and dedicated people in and out of government who are trying harder than ever to solve these problems.
The President strongly believes that the role of government is to protect the freedom of all people to take effective steps to improve their own health. We must renew our commitment to this principle by protecting, not undermining, our market-based medical system. This system encourages health professionals to compete to do their utmost to help patients get the highest-quality, most innovative health care available. To help all Americans get the best care possible, our government and our legal system have critical supporting roles. We must help those with great needs and inadequate means, and we must create a healthy environment for medical care – one in which medical decisions can be made effectively, based on the best available scientific information, and one in which those who would take advantage of the sick and the vulnerable know that they will be held accountable for their improper actions.
The President's framework for improving Medicare will allow beneficiaries to get access to modern integrated health insurance with drug coverage like that available to Federal employees and many millions of Americans under 65. The President's ideas for refundable health insurance tax credits, so that people who get no help now can afford the health insurance they prefer, have already helped form the basis for legislation enacted last year to begin to reduce the number of uninsured.
Reforms to provide tax-free accounts for rising out-of-pocket medical costs have been implemented by the IRS to help people with insurance facing rising out-of-pocket costs. Reforms are being implemented to improve Medicaid and make it more efficient, by giving beneficiaries more control over how they get their care. These are all solid ideas for increasing value in our health care system. I am confident that if we keep working hard and working together, we can build on them with legislative action this year.
The President and Secretary Thompson have also called on Congress to act this year to reform the medical liability system. As you know better than I, in many states around the country, rapidly rising liability insurance premiums – if liability insurance is available at all – are threatening both the quality of care that patients receive today and opportunities to provide better, higher-value care in the future.
Our current medical liability system is threatening the public health. Consider what's happening in Mississippi. Working with the President on this issue last year, I heard from people in many towns in the state who have lost access to needed medical care – especially in the Delta, where the economic conditions are such that they need help the most. Physicians who specialize in family medicine and obstetrics/gynecology in Indianola, and in other rural areas of the state, have stopped delivering babies and have even moved away because of skyrocketing insurance costs. Due to rising insurance costs, only one doctor with expertise in head trauma was available last July to cover all the hospitals in Gulfport, Mississippi. One patient reportedly may have suffered permanent brain damage as a result.
Across the country, from Pennsylvania to Nevada, many hospitals and clinics have had to close emergency rooms and trauma centers and cancel other vital services like obstetrics. Doctors are moving to specialty areas with lower premiums, moving to states with more predictable legal systems, or retiring from active medical practice altogether. I've talked to some of the citizens affected by these crises in access to care. They are very worried, and understandably so.
The President has proposed some bold national medical liability reforms to deal with this crisis. And I'm pleased to see that others are now coming forward with their own proposals. In fact, one declared Presidential candidate who is a trial lawyer recently proposed his own kind of "liability reform." As with all major health care issues, there are strong and well-financed interests on both sides of this one – so of course slogans and anecdotes and so-called "studies" bought and paid for by special interest groups abound. But one of the things that my work at FDA has made very clear to me is that, on virtually all of the critical public health issues we face, there is empirical evidence that we can use to help guide our thinking on difficult health policy issues.
First, there is direct, peer-reviewed, published evidence that the liability reforms supported by the President work. In states like California, almost three decades of experience show that they result in significantly lower growth in liability insurance premiums, and much greater stability in the availability of physician care. Moreover, there is peer-reviewed, published evidence that the cost savings to the health care system add up to many billions of dollars that could be used for other valuable health care purposes. This includes billions in liability insurance savings passed on as lower costs of care, and billions more in savings from avoiding so-called "defensive" medical practices that are intended to avoid lawsuits, not make patients healthier. And peer-reviewed, published studies also show that these reforms do not result in harm to patients – reasonable limits on the magnitude of lawsuits do not reduce the ability of the legal system to deter and redress poor medical care. Rather, these reforms add value to the health care system, by allowing us to get the same or better health care at a lower cost.
Second, the present crisis in many states is not the result of the so-called "insurance cycle" or reckless investments by insurance companies. I think it is true that we have been on an "up" part of the cycle. But that doesn't explain premium increases of 100% or more in the last couple of years in some states that have not reformed their liability system, compared to much smaller increases in most of the states that have implemented significant reforms. The insurance cycle isn't a phenomenon that occurs in some states but not others, like the current crisis in the liability system. And while insurance companies were not immune from the market downturns of the last few years, strict state regulations and reserve requirements already are in place to prevent "reckless" investment. So physician liability reform is a real opportunity to achieve a higher-value health care system, with greater access to modern medical treatment.
From the perspective of the FDA, I want to tell you about some related concerns also arising from fundamental problems in our current liability system. These concerns also involve the issue of whether patients can get timely access to high-quality medical treatment. Despite the rapid increases in biomedical research and development investments that I mentioned earlier, the approval of new drugs and biological treatments is now at the lowest level in more than a decade. Discovering innovative drugs remains a complex business, requiring many years of coordinated research across a broad and increasingly complex array of disciplines. At the same time, the process of bringing a truly new drug to the public is also getting steadily more expensive and now costs over $800 million, according to Tufts University study released three weeks ago.
While some may quarrel with this estimate, there is no debating the fact that developing new treatments has gotten much more expensive, more than double what it was just a decade ago. Nor has this process become any more certain. Despite all the excitement that has accompanied the research innovations of recent years, the fundamental fact is that new medicines are not reaching patients any faster today, and the "success rate" in the drug development pipeline remains very low.
I'm worried about the possibility that this trend may continue. It's easy to see how this could happen: there aren't many relatively easy receptor targets to exploit for creating new drugs; and developing genomics-based therapies remains very costly. It can take a decade or longer now for a new scientific concept to move from the laboratory to the patient who will benefit from it and the additional complexity of assessing genomic and other information could just add to that. I don't think the future needs to be that way, or that it will be if we make the right decisions today. But the fact that the future of medical care is uncertain highlights the need to find ways to help make sure we realize the great promise of better medical technologies ahead.
So this is a critical time for health policy. Policymakers need to find ways to act together on creative but difficult health policy reforms, ones that make health care more affordable while still encouraging innovation. I can tell you that FDA is committed to doing all we can to reduce the cost and uncertainty of developing, producing, and using new medical technology. This doesn't mean we're going to relax our standards one bit for requiring that medicines demonstrate they are safe and effective to be approved, and to remain on the market. But FDA is working harder than ever to make sure that all of the steps we impose in the clinical development process and in our own review of applications make sense for protecting and promoting the public health.
Our tort system is having adverse effects on medical care, and it's also impeding affordable and timely access to medical products. This is especially true in important areas like women's health and pediatric care, especially care for young children – the same kind of crisis areas as in physician care. As the New York Times reported in a front-page story last weekend, health care experts believe that the unpredictable risk of extreme liability costs is affecting decisions about developing and marketing new treatments. These liability risks particularly affect areas like pregnancy care and vaccines, where we badly need innovation. Not only is the current liability system creating critical problems in access to physicians; it is increasingly threatening the development of badly-needed cures for physicians to use. The legal system is altering the practice of medicine, and the development of medicines themselves, in ways that harm patients.
Don't get me wrong. I think that tort law and the lawyers who practice it can play a very important role in safeguarding the public health. They need to be there to help patients get redress for truly negligent care. The problem is that the current liability system doesn't seem to help them do this. Getting back to the published evidence, comprehensive studies by the Harvard Malpractice Study and others have shown that only a small fraction of the cases that result in settlement payments or jury verdicts actually involve low-quality care by physicians. Rather, the hallmark of awards is bad outcomes – not bad care. And only a fraction of patients who are injured negligently get compensation, and when they do, a lot of the money goes to lawyers and the very high costs of administering this inefficient system.
We need to change the system so that it really will help deter bad care, not pile on when there are bad outcomes. In a report last year, echoed in a follow-up analysis this year, the Department of Health and Human Services suggested ways to do this – reasonable limitations on non-economic damages (with no limits on damages for economic losses, such as a mother's ability to provide care at home for her children); so-called "early offer" programs to avoid the extremely high cost and many years of delay of compensating injured patients; and even the idea of science-based "health courts" to help assure that the latest scientific evidence forms the basis for decisions about negligent care.
Similarly, tort law can potentially be a very important force for improving the development and use of safe and effective medicines – one of our critical public health priorities at FDA. In cases when product manufacturers have a substantive adverse effect on the quality of health care, by providing fraudulent information to FDA, or deliberately withholding important information about safety problems associated with their products, they should be held accountable. The dedicated members of our legal profession have always provided, and continue to provide, vital protection against those who would prey on consumers or intentionally try to pass off harmful products. The threat of litigation can be an important disincentive to many predatory behaviors that could take advantage of vulnerable patients.
Recently, FDA published for the first time a list of all of the studies that were required when we approved new products. I am disappointed that many of these studies have been delayed, and remain incomplete – so that we aren't getting all the information that we need on the safety and effectiveness of products that we approved on the condition of completing the studies. This is a real public health concern, and we are taking many steps to get the needed medical evidence. My hope is that, by publishing this list, we can encourage more accountability by product developers to fulfill study requirements. It's possible that lawyers can potentially help in this area too.
But once again, the problem is that the current liability system doesn't reward lawyers who focus their efforts on real public health threats that we are not already addressing. Instead, the most experienced and well-financed plaintiffs' law firms know that the biggest payouts can go to those who exploit the FDA's decisions in support of our mission to promote the safe and effective use of medications. More and more often, these "mass tort" firms specialize in taking a new product warning or withdrawal decision, and using it to pile on the company.
As the New York Times described it, the lawyers are doing what we want patients and doctors to do: they're reading the warnings that we put on products, and they're taking action when we add a warning or withdraw a product from the market based on our analysis of new information. Using the information they get from us, they file a few suits with very sick plaintiffs in states and counties considered favorable to plaintiffs, while building big "inventories" of less seriously ill patients, or even people who have used the drug but are not sick. One woman, speaking to a reporter for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, summed it up this way. When she read that the drug Propulsid might cause harm, she stopped taking it and signed up for a lawsuit. "Actually, I didn't get hurt by Propulsid," she told the newspaper. But because she had taken the drug, she said she thought she could join a class-action lawsuit "and I might get a couple of thousand dollars." Today, can we really afford an extra couple of thousand dollars every time a patient uses a drug, even if it doesn't harm them?
Yet, a whole specialized industry has developed around this approach. On June 19 and 20, the trial lawyers group known as "Mass Torts Made Perfect" is hosting a meeting on "Securities, Drug, and Environmental Litigation. Their slogan is "The Knowledge to Conquer," and I don't think they are talking about conquering disease. You can still register at their web site: www.masstortsmadeperfect.com. Here is a sampling of some of the session titles: "Accutane: New Material-Systemic Injury"; and "PPA: 'Freight Train of Poison.'" And they have plenty of "good advice" too. Speaking at this group's January 2003 meeting, one well-known plaintiff's attorney helpfully suggested that trial attorneys should reward the people who flush out the most clients by sending them steaks or turkeys at Christmas.
Instead of pursuing real wrongdoing, our legal system is piling on to our legitimate warnings about the risks of medical products. This is a problem, because all medical products carry risks as well as benefits. High quality medical care involves managing risks – including balancing the risks of treatments with the often more serious risks of illnesses. Medical care almost never involves eliminating risks.
The point of our warnings and the other science-based information on a medical product labeling is to provide doctors and patients with the up to date scientific information about risks and benefits, so that they can maximize benefits and minimize risks. And we can and should learn more about products on the market – even, as with hormone therapies, products that have been on the market for decades. This new information is critical, and we need to encourage all steps to generate and use it effectively. It may lead to new indications for use, new warnings, or, if the new information is unfavorable enough, even product withdrawals.
So when the FDA takes new action to add a black box warning or remove a drug from the market, that shouldn't also be an automatic alert to the trial lawyers to pile on. We learn more all the time about drugs, and we want companies to help us in that effort, not to be afraid to work to develop better information on potential safety concerns for fear of triggering lawsuits.
Today, developers of new medical products increasingly need to set aside billions of dollars, or redirect their research activities from potentially valuable directions, in anticipation of the potentially unlimited risk of mass tort lawsuits. The growing practice of pulling together mass lawsuits based on FDA's actions is altering the development of medical products in ways that reduce health care quality and access. We must work together to help solve some of these challenges.
I'm pleased that the medical community has long been concerned about this public health risk. I applaud the American Medical Association for their continued support for medical product liability reform as an important state and federal legislative reform objective. Many patient groups who come to see us because of concerns about the development or availability of needed treatments also worry that litigation has become an impediment to high-quality care.
These groups believe that companies should be held accountable, and that patients who are injured negligently should be compensated. But all worry that our current system is failing at these tasks. Especially at a time of rising health care costs – and of increasing cost and difficulty of developing new drugs, and declining productivity inside research labs -- we need a better system, one that encourages innovations in health care along with good behavior by product developers.
In addition to reducing access to medical care, the litigation system contributes to other, potentially even more pervasive barriers to high-quality care. For example, one proven approach to reducing errors and complications is patient safety and quality improvement programs implemented by doctors and health care organizations working together. By sharing information on quality problems and medical errors, health professionals can determine ways to avoid errors and complications in the first place. As the Institute of Medicine and many other nonpartisan expert organizations have pointed out, this kind of honest information-sharing within and among health care organizations is essential for implementing "quality systems" in health care – to generate substantial improvements in our health care system. But these efforts are blocked by fear of litigation. If health professionals write down information about errors and near-misses and how they can be avoided, these good-faith efforts to improve quality and safety become targets for lawsuits. This creates an environment in which "risk management" means avoiding lawsuit risk, by avoiding the honesty and candor that are vital to reducing patient risk. I think we need to create an environment in which everyone is rewarded for being concerned first and foremost about risk management for patients.
That's why I'm very pleased that the House of Representatives, by a wide bipartisan margin, has passed legislation that will improve health care quality by providing appropriate confidentiality protections for patient safety activities. This will help health care organizations identify and act on ways to improve safety and quality; it will also help FDA get more and more timely information on important risks involving the products we regulate. It's a big step forward in quality of care. And I hope the Senate will act soon.
Once again, at FDA, we see similar problems involving the medical products we regulate. We work diligently to keep product labels up to date and complete. Medical researchers and companies are important contributors to this effort, and so we need an environment in which all parties are encouraged to develop better safety information and to provide it to us as quickly as possible. How many of you doctors read the drug labels from the package inserts and the PDR? Come on… Well, we know this information is not presented in the most usable format, and that's why we're working right now on an improved product label. For example, many have suggested a summary section capturing key product information, including benefits and risks, with navigable links to more detailed information relevant to particular kinds of patients and circumstances.
The FDA has developed a proposed rule that would do just that. But regulations on labeling formats alone aren't enough to make labels as useful as possible. What's needed is a culture of patient safety – an environment of product development and use that focuses on reducing risks and improving benefits for patients. So long as the product developers we work with to develop the label are facing an environment in which any adverse outcome can result in major lawsuits, we may get labels written for lawyers, not doctors and patients.
Because "risk management" often means reducing liability risk not reducing patient risks, there is pressure to make labels read like liability avoidance tools rather than efficient documents for conveying risk and helping doctors to help patients. To protect and improve the health of the public, product labels must be written with a patient in mind, not a jury. By getting better information to patients and doctors, it's possible to achieve systematic improvements in medical outcomes.
At FDA, we have taken a number of steps to bring more clarity to the risk information appearing in approved labels. Our regulations increasingly make clear that contraindications and warnings should be used only when they are scientifically appropriate. We have also issued guidance making clear that similar judiciousness should guide decisions with respect to the inclusion of adverse event information in labeling. As I've said, the objective of these efforts is to make the package insert more useful to doctors and patients by reducing the amount of unnecessary, unsubstantiated, out-of-date, or otherwise misleading information about the risk of a drug. But the fact that we have to devote additional efforts to this problem is an indication that there are growing obstacles to science-based, effective labeling.
Here again, creative legal thinking has become an impediment to sound medical judgment. Sometimes a plaintiff will file a product liability lawsuit that complains that the FDA made a mistake in judging when particular risk information should be added to labeling.
We try hard to make sure that any and all appropriate information makes it on the product label. That's our mission, and that's why we have developed a comprehensive scientific review process and ongoing evaluation process to fulfill it effectively. But the legal environment in which we operate makes that increasingly challenging. When the FDA considers and rejects some labeling language regarding the risk of a particular adverse event, we base our decisions on a rigorous, science-based system that carefully evaluates the evidence and the proposed warning. Yet state courts sometimes allow lawsuits against manufacturers who, at FDA's instruction, didn't add certain warning language to a product's labeling.
In fact, we have participated in some product liability lawsuits in which plaintiffs asked courts to find that a product developer's statements were inadequate, even though they met the comprehensive and exacting standards of FDA's science-based system of drug regulation. We've done this before, but have had to intervene more often in recent years. In one recent case, the plaintiff sought to require a suicide warning in the labeling of an antidepressant that FDA had specifically considered and rejected three times, because it was scientifically unsupportable and (by drawing unwarranted attention to an unproven risk) could lead to under-treatment of depression. I intend to continue to make sure that we use all available evidence to guide our decisions on product labels, and we are doing more than ever to improve that information. But I worry about the impact on the consistency and scientific accuracy of our labels in the face of increasing involvement of different juries in different states.
When the liability system threatened the development of lifesaving medical products in the past, we found creative solutions. One clear example is the response to the crisis involving childhood vaccines in the 1980s. Under the weight of very costly litigation involving rare but serious adverse events, prices for vaccines had increased 10-fold, and the number of manufacturers dropped from about 20 to only 4 – and only 2 in the US. So Congress took most child vaccine litigation out of the tort system, and the Vaccine Compensation Fund has worked very well for a while. Today, it's widely understood that vaccines are safer than ever despite these fundamental liability reforms – or perhaps, because of them. But gaps in this program are now leading to new litigation that again threatens the stability of the vaccine market.
The stakes for resolving these challenges couldn't be higher. We are right at the point where the new technology that has been developed over the last two decades, from genomics, and proteomics, to antibody-based drugs, and others, is yielding some breakthrough treatments. In recent weeks, we've approved novel drug treatments for cancer. These breakthroughs in cancer may be the leading edge of what the new technology can make possible for many human diseases. It's an indication that these new technologies can work, and we need to make sure that we have a health care system that encourages such medical progress.
Patients deserve access to high-quality health care without avoidable medical errors and complications, and there are many steps that we can and must take to achieve this goal. Our liability system for both physicians and medical products can be a positive force to help us meet these critical public health challenges. But today, our liability system is threatening high-quality care. In order to continue to improve the public health through affordable access to health professionals, and through the development of better clinical practices and better medical technology, we need to have a tort system that is reasonable and modern and as up-to-date as our technology.
I want to thank you all again for all your efforts, and all your efforts still ahead, to achieve this system of high-quality health care. Your efforts are in the best interest of the public health, and you are helping FDA fulfill its mission of protecting and promoting the public health. We're in the right place at the right time to make real differences in the health of Americans.


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subset: commoncrawl


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In This Issue
National / International News
Final ROD & IAP/EIS For National Petroleum Reserve In Alaska - Feb 21: Outgoing Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed the Record of Decision (ROD) for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). The final action allows for the development of 72 percent of the estimated economically recoverable oil in the nearly 23-million-acre Reserve, while protecting the vital subsistence resources of Alaska Natives and the habitat of world-class wildlife populations. Salazar said, "The balanced approach under this plan is the result of extensive local input and will help guide the responsible production and transport of the substantial oil and gas resources in and around the Reserve. This comprehensive plan will allow us to continue to expand our leasing in the NPR-A, as has happened over the last three years, while protecting the outstanding and unique resources that are critically important to the culture and subsistence lifestyle of Alaska Natives and our nation's conservation heritage."
The Record of Decision addresses two key issues that Secretary Salazar identified for special attention when he released the final Environmental Impact Statement for the NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan. First, the ROD provides explicit confirmation that potential pipelines carrying oil or gas from operations in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas can be constructed through the NPR-A. Second, following additional consultations with North Slope communities, the Record of Decision requires that BLM establish an "NPR-A Working Group" that will include representatives of North Slope tribal entities, Native corporations and local governments.
The NPR-A Working Group will provide input on the full range of management issues and possible future development in the NPR-A, including pipelines and related oil and gas infrastructure development. The Working Group also will be a forum to gather additional scientific information and traditional knowledge about wildlife populations and needs, and it can inform potential adjustments to the boundaries of special areas including, for example, potential future adjustments to the southernmost boundary of the Teshekpuk Lake special area. The Plan itself is consistent with the Congressional intent that oil and gas leases be offered in the NPR-A while providing significant protections for the subsistence resources of Alaska Native residents of the area and the Reserve's extensive wildlife and recreational values.
After receiving more than 400,000 public comments and following two days of meetings and visits with North Slope leaders in August 2012, Salazar announced the Preferred Alternative, which was adopted by the ROD that he signed today. The ROD includes the creation of the Peard Bay Special Area and enlarges the Teshekpuk Lake and Utukok River Uplands Special Areas, expanding Special Areas in the NPR-A from 8.3 million acres to 13.35 million acres.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has estimated that the NPR-A lands made available for development under this plan contain nearly three-fourths of NPR-A's estimated economically recoverable oil and over half of the estimated economically recoverable gas. The plan will allow for access to oil and gas resources on 11.8 million acres, which are estimated to hold 549 million barrels of economically recoverable oil and 8.7 trillion cubic feet of economically recoverable natural gas.
Following President Obama's directive in May 2011 that annual oil and gas lease sales be conducted in the NPR-A, BLM offered three million acres in December 2011. That sale generated 17 winning bids covering more than 120,000 acres. Another lease sale on November 7, 2012, offered 4.5 million acres and received 14 winning bids on 160,088 total acres. There are now 191 authorized oil and gas leases in the NPR-A, encompassing 1.5 million acres. To date, only exploratory drilling has occurred, but in 2011, with the assistance of the President's Interagency Working Group on Coordination of Domestic Energy Development and Permitting in Alaska, the Corps of Engineers issued permits to ConocoPhillips that will allow for the first commercial oil and gas production in the Reserve.
The ROD makes all lands along the Chukchi Sea coast, most of the lands along the Beaufort Sea coast, and other lands available for application for a wide range of route options for pipelines and other infrastructure that would support offshore development. The decision concurrently protects a wide range of resources, including critical areas for sensitive bird populations from all seven continents and for the roughly 400,000 caribou found in the Teshekpuk Lake and Western Arctic Caribou Herds. Subsistence users in more than 40 villages in northwest Alaska rely on these caribou herds.
The plan, which is detailed in the Final Integrated Activity Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement (Final IAP/EIS) for the NPR-A, is the first management plan that covers the entire Reserve, including 9.2 million acres in the southwest area. Previous plans covered the northeast and northwest planning areas only. The Final IAP/EIS for the NPR-A, released in December 2012, was developed through extensive consultations that considered the viewpoints of Alaskans who live in the region, tribal governments, the State of Alaska, industry, environmental organizations and other stakeholders and federal partners. The BLM hosted seven public meetings and Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act subsistence hearings in North Slope villages. The BLM also held meetings in Fairbanks and Anchorage. Also, following release of the Final IAP/EIS, the BLM conducted meetings in communities on the North Slope to receive recommendations on future ongoing outreach efforts with communities located within or near the NPR-A.
Environmental and conservation groups applauded the plan and said they look forward to continuing to work with the DOI to refine needed protections for key special areas within the Reserve. Cindy Shogan, Executive Director, Alaska Wilderness League said,. "We thank the Department of the Interior for protecting special areas within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The Department of the Interior has crafted a plan that protects and recognizes the vital role of subsistence, scenic and recreational values, and unique wildlife values. The Reserve is home to our most iconic wildlife, like caribou, muskoxen, grizzly bears and beluga whales. Thank you for protecting this special place for future generations."
Martin Hayden, Vice President, Policy and Legislation for Earthjustice said, "The plan is a huge step for conservation of the Western Arctic, an area increasingly stressed by climate change, and provides critical protections for key lands in the Reserve and the wildlife dependent on it, including migratory birds from around the world, caribou, bears, wolves, beluga whales, and walrus." Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society said, "We are grateful to the Obama administration for a fair and thoughtful decision that balances conservation, Alaska Natives' needs for subsistence resources, and the nation's demand for energy. This strategy protects incredibly valuable wildlife habitat for caribou, bears and migratory waterfowl in the Western Arctic, yet still allows industry access to the majority of economically recoverable oil in the reserve. It's a plan that meets the needs of all Americans."
Access a lengthy release from DOI with links to related information (click here). Access the NPR-A ROD and related documents (click here). Access a release from Earthjustice with comments from many organizations (click here). [#Energy/NPR-A, #Land, #Wildlife, #Water]
Kerry Committed To Moving Forward On Climate Change - Feb 20: The new Secretary of State, former Senator John Kerry, delivered his first major policy speech at the University of Virginia (UVA). In the long, and wide-ranging speech he addressed the upcoming budget "sequester" [See WIMS 2/11/13] and the looming issue of global climate change. Secretary Kerry said in part:
"Now, I'm particularly aware that in many ways, the greatest challenge to America's foreign policy today is in the hands not of diplomats, but of policymakers in Congress. It is often said that we cannot be strong at home if we're not strong in the world, but in these days of a looming budget sequester that everyone actually wants to avoid – or most – we can't be strong in the world unless we are strong at home. My credibility as a diplomat working to help other countries create order is strongest when America, at last, puts its own fiscal house in order, and that has to be now. Think about it. It's hard to tell the leadership of any number of countries that they have to resolve their economic issues if we don't resolve our own. Let's reach a responsible agreement that prevents these senseless cuts. Let's not lose this opportunity because of politics. . .
"The stories that we need to tell, of standing up for American jobs and businesses and standing up for our American values, intersect powerfully in the opportunity that we have now in this moment of urgency to lead on the climate concerns that we share with our global neighbors. We as a nation must have the foresight and the courage to make the investments necessary to safeguard the most sacred trust we keep for our children and our grandchildren, and that is an environment not ravaged by rising seas, deadly superstorms, devastating droughts, and the other hallmarks of a dramatically changing climate. President Obama is committed to moving forward on that, and so am I, and so must you be ready to join us in that effort. . ."
Secretary Kerry will soon have a direct opportunity to enter the climate change debate in the upcoming decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. The State Department has the primary responsibility for reviewing the project for possible issuance of a Presidential permit. On February 6, sixty leading environmental, conservation, development, faith-based, and social justice organizations sent a letter to Kerry [See WIMS 2/6/13], calling on him to push for strong action against climate change and to take three specific steps: to help secure a global agreement to deal with the climate crisis; to reject any new or expanded infrastructure for tar sands oil, starting with the Keystone XL pipeline [See WIMS 1/24/13]; and to secure funding for international climate action, particularly in developing countries and the most vulnerable communities.
Access the full text of Secretary Kerry's speech and link to a video (click here). Access multiple WIMS postings on the Keystone XL pipeline (click here). [#Climate, #Energy/KXL]
Potential Benefits Of Inertial Fusion Energy Justify Continued R&D- Feb 20: The National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) National Research Council (NRC) has release a report entitled, An Assessment of the Prospects for Inertial Fusion Energy. According to a release, the potential benefits of successful development of an inertial confinement fusion-based energy technology justify investment in fusion energy research and development as part of the long-term U.S. energy R&D portfolio. Although ignition of the fusion fuel has not yet been achieved, scientific and technological progress in inertial confinement fusion over the past decade has been substantial. Developing inertial fusion energy would require establishment of a national, coordinated, broad-based program, but achievement of ignition is a prerequisite.
Ronald Davidson, professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory and co-chair of the committee that wrote the report said, "The realization of inertial fusion energy would be a tremendous achievement capable of satisfying the world's ever-growing need for power without major environmental consequences. These possibilities form an extremely compelling rationale to continue R&D efforts toward this goal."
Inertial fusion energy technology (IFE) would provide an essentially carbon-free energy source with a practically unlimited supply of fuel. IFE relies on a process in which a fuel pellet the size of a pinhead is compressed by an external energy source, raising the temperature and density enough that the nuclei of the some of the fuel atoms fuse together, releasing nuclear energy. The aim is ignition, in which the fusion energy produced by the initial compression causes the remaining fuel to undergo fusion.
Gerald Kulcinski, associate dean for research and director of the Fusion Technical Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who served as co-chair of the report committee said, "The fuel used in the fusion process is lithium and deuterium; deuterium is derived from water and therefore virtually unlimited. And unlike nuclear fission plants, it would not produce large amounts of high-level nuclear waste requiring long-term disposal. The potential is for a sustainable energy source that could power the Earth for millions of years."
U.S. research on inertial confinement fusion has been supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy. NNSA's objective is nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship, but much of the R&D is also applicable to IFE development. There are several external energy source or "driver" technologies under development: lasers, particle beams, and pulsed magnetic fields. NNSA's National Ignition Facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, recently completed a National Ignition Campaign aimed at achieving ignition. While much was learned in the process, ignition was not attained. In view of this result, the committee concluded that a range of driver technologies should continue to be pursued, rather than choosing a single technology at this time.
Access a release from NAS and link to a brief summary (click here). Access the complete 237-page report and an expanded summary (click here). [#Energy/Fusion]
Off-Grid Solar Lighting Can Save Money & Reduce Emissions - Feb 20: New studies from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) indicate that replacing the millions of kerosene lamps, candles and flashlights used worldwide with modern solar lighting can provide an increasingly low-cost solution to reducing carbon emissions, indoor air pollution and health risks, and boosting green jobs. Globally, over 1.3 billion people live without access to electric light. Some 25 billion litres of kerosene are used annually to fuel the world's kerosene lamps, which costs end-users a total of up to US$23 billion each year. This has an even higher price tag if government subsidies are taken into account.
UNEP announced a new strategic partnership with the private sector to facilitate a market shift towards energy-efficient, off-grid lighting and to reduce the estimated 74 million tons of annual carbon emissions from fuel-based light sources commonly used in developing countries. The collaboration with the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA) will see the launch of an international effort to accelerate the deployment of enabling policies towards sustainable off-grid lighting. To underscore the new partnership, the UNEP-led "en.lighten" initiative has unveiled new national assessments for 80 countries on the economic and environmental gains that can be achieved through a shift to solar-powered alternatives.
The studies show that if Kenya, for example, replaced all fuel-based lighting with solar-powered light emitting diode (LED) systems, the costs would be repaid in only seven months, due to major fuel savings. Kenya currently spends around US$ 900 million per year on off-grid lighting, and fuel-based light sources in the country are responsible for over 2.3 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per year.
Wolfgang Gregor, Secretary-General of the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA) said, "GOGLA is the industry advocate for promoting clean, quality off-grid lighting systems that benefit society and businesses in developing and emerging markets. We want to ensure that decision-makers and government officials are aware about the importance of modern off-grid lighting solutions and recognize the potential of this multi-billion dollar market. This will lead to the implementation of policies that address product quality standards and environmental issues and create sustainable employment."
A release from UNEP indicates that in addition to saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, phasing out kerosene lamps and candles greatly reduces risks from burns, fires, and respiratory illnesses caused by indoor smoke. Eliminating the need for flashlights powered by disposable batteries will also greatly reduce hazardous waste disposal in landfill and related environmental damage.
The release indicates that although solar LED systems have a higher initial cost than traditional fuel-based lamps, the payback period can be very short due to the high running costs of fuel-based lighting systems. The UNEP assessments show that the payback period in most countries is less than a year, and sometimes just a matter of months, depending on the cost of the LED system and the local price of kerosene. UNEP indicated that these are the first studies of their kind to analyze the magnitude of financial savings, health benefits, development and carbon emission reductions that a coordinated global transition to modern and sustainable off-grid lighting solutions can deliver.
Access a lengthy release from UNEP with more information and links to related information (click here). Access the GOGLA website for more information (click here). Access the en.lighten initiative website for additional information (click here). [#Energy/Solar]
ACC's Alternative Security Program Guidance Document & Template - Feb 20: The American Chemistry Council (ACC) recently introduced new tools designed to enhance the process for developing and reviewing security plans under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. ACC said that security plans developed using ACC's Alternative Security Program (ASP) guidance document and template will help provide the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with greater clarity about regulated facilities' security measures and how they meet or exceed CFATS requirements.
Under CFATS, regulated facilities must submit a Site Security Plan (SSP) to DHS outlining existing and planned measures to address potential security threats. The submission of plans using ACC's guidance and template is an alternate approach to completing the site security plan requirement that is explicitly permitted under CFATS.
ACC indicated that Dave Wulf, Director of DHS's Infrastructure Security Compliance Division (ISCD), has praised ACC's efforts to develop an ASP template. ISCD made staff available for consultation as ACC considered options for its template. Director Wulf has noted that "the use of Alternative Security Programs that are grounded in the principles of CFATS' risk-based performance standards -- particularly when used by multiple facilities within the same company -- can enhance those facilities' efforts to attain authorization and approval of their Security Plans." In regard to ISCD's consultations with chemical and other industries on their efforts to develop potential ASP templates, Director Wulf also stated that "as ISCD moves in 2013 to significantly heighten the pace of authorizations, inspections and final approvals of Security Plans, ASPs will undoubtedly be an important part of the CFATS program's continued forward progress."
Access a release from ACC and link to the ASP guidance document and template and related information (click here). [#Toxics, #Haz]
Nominations For 2013 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge - Feb 21: U.S. EPA announced the nominations for the 2013 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards for companies and institutions that can design chemicals or a new product that help protect public health and the environment. Jim Jones, acting assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention said, "The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge is an opportunity for EPA to recognize green chemistry innovations that are having real time results in making manufacturing processes and products that we use every day safer. Increasingly, environmental benefits can result in reduced costs or increased market opportunities for new products, or both. In 2012, EPA launched an effort to complement the award program by providing a forum for winners and nominees to focus on maximizing their investments in green chemistry."
Award-winning technologies during 2012 included one which saves $2 million to $20 million each year in each of eighteen plants, which convert bauxite ore into the raw material for making aluminum. Another technology is saving over $1 million each year in a large paper mill.
Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce both the generation and use of chemicals that are hazardous to the environment and people's health. Nominations for innovative technologies that feature the design of greener chemicals, greener chemical synthesis, or greener chemical reactions are due to the agency by April 30, 2013. EPA is particularly interested in receiving nominations on approaches or technologies that reduce or eliminate the need for brominated flame retardant chemicals. EPA anticipates recognizing five award winning green chemistry technologies this fall.
Access a release from EPA and link to more information on past award winners and how to submit entries (click here). [#P2, #Sustain, #Toxics]
U.S. Releases 5-Year Arctic Research Plan - Feb 20: According to an announcement, there is broad scientific consensus that rapid changes in global climate are altering ice and snow cover and affecting Arctic ecosystems, indigenous societies, and natural resources. Research is needed to increase fundamental understanding of these challenges and inform development of sound, science-based solutions. The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) is charged with developing five-year plans for Federally sponsored research in the Arctic region. For 2013 to 2017, the IARPC, which consists of representatives from 14 Federal agencies, departments, and offices, has identified seven research areas that will inform national policy and benefit significantly from close interagency coordination.
They research areas are: Sea ice and marine ecosystems; Terrestrial ice and ecosystems; Atmospheric studies of surface heat, energy, and mass balances; Observing systems; Regional climate models; Adaptation tools for sustaining communities; and Human health. These research areas do not encompass all Federal Arctic research activities that will occur over the next five years. Many important investigations outside the scope of this plan will continue to be conducted within individual agencies or through other interagency collaborations.
Access the complete 104-page Plan (click here). [#Climate]
The topics and dates for March and April webinars are: March 5, 2013 2–3:15 PM ET: Education for Workforce Development; April 2, 2013 2–3 PM ET: Engineering Resilient Cyber-Physical Systems; and April 16, 2013 2–3 PM ET: Computational Challenges and Analysis Under Increasingly Dynamic and Uncertain Electric Power System Conditions.
Access a release from DOE with links to webinar information (click here). Access the PSERC Future Grid to Enable Sustainable Energy Systems website for more information (click here). [#Energy/Grid]
Great Lakes News
Interim Report Asian Carp Environmental DNA Calibration Study - Feb 20: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), released an interim report for the Asian Carp Environmental DNA Calibration Study (ECALS), which is a three-year study funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, as scoped by the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC) Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework. The agencies will host a stakeholder conference call February 26 at 10 AM (Central) to answer questions regarding the report.
USACE Environmental DNA (eDNA) Program Manager Kelly Baerwaldt said, "The purpose of ECALS is to improve the understanding and interpretation of Asian carp environmental DNA results, so we can refine and make this relatively young monitoring tool the most effective to detect live Asian carp presence." Initial ECALS efforts within the report focus on identifying alternative sources of eDNA beyond a live Asian carp, whereas marker development to aid in detecting the specific species and calibration experiments that look at factors that may influence the detection, degradation or persistence of DNA will receive greater attention in 2013.
Among preliminary findings: Storm sewers, fisheries sampling gear, fish-eating birds, dead fish carcasses, barges, and sediments may contribute to a positive eDNA detection without a live fish being present; DNA can stay on these sources for a numbers of days; Tagged-bird studies show large variations in bird movement and consumption of Asian carp in the wild, which may lead to positive detection of Asian carp eDNA in bird feces; Shedding rates of DNA from Asian carp were not affected by different temperatures or flow rates of water; and DNA from Asian carp sperm can be detected for over two weeks after release from an Asian carp.
Access a release from USACE with more details on the conference call and related information (click here). Access a separate release from the ACRCC with links to an Executive Summary; eDNA Fact Sheet; ECALS Fact Sheet; and the ECALS Report (click here). [#GLakes/AsianCarp]
Federal Register Highlights
The following is a summary from our Daily REGTrak Bulletin* for:
Thursday, February 21, 2013.
Federal Register
Vol. 78, Issue 35
1. ENERGY/RFS - PR/NM. EPA. Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: 2013 Renewable Fuel Standards; Public Hearing PDF | Text |
2. ENERGY/RFS - PR. EPA. RFS Renewable Identification Number (RIN) Quality Assurance Program PDF | Text |
3. AIR - ND. EPA. Access by EPA Contractors to Information Claimed as Confidential Business Information (CBI) Submitted Under Title II of the Clean Air Act and Related to the Nonroad Diesel Engine Program PDF | Text |
4. HAZ - ICR. EPA. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to OMB for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Part B Permit Application, Permit Modifications, and Special Permits (Renewal) PDF | Text |
5. AIR - ICR. EPA. Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request; Ambient Air Quality Surveillance PDF | Text |
6. ENERGY/Efficiency - ICR. EPA. Information Collection Request Submitted to OMB for Review and Approval; Comment Request; EPA's ENERGY STAR Program in the Residential Sector (Renewal) PDF | Text |
7. ALL - NM. EPA. National Environmental Education Advisory Council PDF | Text |
8. ALL - ND. EPA. National Environmental Justice Advisory Council; Request for Nominations to the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) PDF | Text |
9. ENERGY/Efficiency - PR. DOE. Energy Efficiency Program for Commercial and Industrial Equipment: Commercial and Industrial Pumps PDF | Text |
10. ENERGY/Grid - ND. DOE. Electric Grid Integration Technical Workshops; two documents are publicly available and the Department of Energy is requesting public comments PDF | Text |
11. ENERGY - NM. DOE. Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee; Discussion of the final edits to the BERAC report PDF | Text |
12. MI/LAND; MI/TRANSPORT - FR. DOI/NPS. Special Regulations; Areas of the National Park System, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Bicycling PDF | Text |
13. ENERGY/OCS - ND. DOI/BOEM. Environmental Documents Prepared for Oil, Gas, and Mineral Operations by the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Region PDF | Text |
ANPR - Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; FR - Final Rule; FRD - Direct final rule; FRI - Interim final rule; ICR - Information Collection Request; ND - Notice of data, information, reports, etc. availability; NF - Notice of Funding Opportunity; NM - Notice of Meeting; NS - Notice of administrative/court settlement; PR - Proposed Rule; ROD - Record of decision
*If you need further information on the above announcements you may want to subscribe to our REGTrak service. Subscribers receive a complete Federal Register summary of nationally applicable environmental announcements, contact information and direct links to the full-text of each announcement (pdf & html) before 8 AM each day for $139 per year (click here). You can also access our Federal Regulatory website and follow the links from there (click here).
Article Coding: [Air] = Air; [All] = Cross-Media, ecosystems; [Climate] Climate Change; [Drink] = Drinking Water; [Energy] = Energy; [GLakes] = Great Lakes; [Haz] = Hazardous Waste; [Land] = Land Use, Forests; [P2] Pollution Prevention, Sustainability; [Remed] = Remediation, Brownfields; [Tanks] = AST, UST; [Toxics] =Toxics, Pesticides; [Transport] = Transportation; [Solid Waste]; [Water] = Water; [Wildlife] = Wildlife, Endangered Species.
Michigan News
Detroit Financial Emergency & No Satisfactory Plan To Fix It - Feb 19: The six-member Financial Review Team appointed in December to examine the City of Detroit's finances under Public Act 72 of 1990 (Local Government Fiscal Responsibility Act) has unanimously determined that a local government financial emergency currently exists in the City of Detroit and no satisfactory plan is in place to resolve it. Under PA 72, the Governor now has 30 days to review the report and make a determination on whether or not a financial emergency exists in the City.
State Treasurer Andy Dillon, a member of the 6-person panel said, "This review team spent two months pouring over the city's finances, taking careful consideration of both long and short-term issues, including recent actions by the administration and City Council. While we appreciate the steps the city has taken over the past number of weeks, key reform measures have not occurred quickly enough, if at all. The team collectively believes the city needs assistance in making the difficult decisions necessary to achieve the significant reforms that are so crucial to the city's long-term viability." Treasurer Dillon thanked Mayor Dave Bing, his administration, City Council members, and others in and around city government for their thoughtful assistance throughout the review process. In its report, the Review Team cited several conditions, including the following, in making its determination:
Ronald Goldsberry, an independent consultant and one of Governor Snyder's appointees to the Review Team said, "Each member of the Review Team came into this process with an open mind, and no preconceptions. However, it became clear as we moved forward, that the city continues to struggle mightily beneath the weight of chronic deficits and its long-term liabilities. Add to the mix a city governance structure that resists meaningful, structural change, and you have what we have deemed to be a financial emergency."
The City of Detroit Financial Review Team consists of Andy Dillon, State Treasurer; Thomas McTavish, Auditor General for the State of Michigan; Ken Whipple, chairman of the board of Korn/Ferry International (nominee of the Senate Majority Leader); Darrell Burks, senior partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (nominee of the Speaker of the House of Representatives); Ronald Goldsberry, independent consultant (representing other persons with relevant professional experience); and Frederick Headen, legal advisor for the Michigan Department of Treasury (representing State officials with relevant professional experience).
Access a release from the State Treasurer (click here). Access the Michigan Local Government Fiscal Health website for more information (click here). [#MIAll]
$2.7 Million To Upgrade Rural Commercial Routes - Feb 19: The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced that nine Michigan counties will use $2.7 million in State Category F funds to upgrade roads in urban areas to "all-season" status to support local economic growth and keep Michigan open for business year-round. Category F funding is intended to expand or preserve all-season roads on commercial routes in the urban areas of rural counties. In order to leverage the impact of the state's investment, MDOT's decision to award funding considers the amount of commercial traffic on the local road, connections to other all-season roads, Category D routes, or state trunklines, and the project's ability to improve safety and intermodal connectivity on Michigan roads.
Projects have been approved for Transportation Economic Development Fund (TEDF) Category F funds in Berrien, Branch, Dickinson, Jackson, Muskegon, Roscommon, St. Clair, Van Buren and Washtenaw counties. The projects will be completed with nearly $1.9 million in local matching funds. The improvements will include road reconstruction, resurfacing, and drainage improvements. The TEDF provides funding for transportation improvements that enhance the State's ability to compete in a global economy, promote economic growth and improve the quality of life in Michigan. Eligible applicants for Category F grants are county, city and village road agencies within counties having a population of 400,000 or less. Funding is awarded on a competitive basis with a minimum local match of 20 percent.
Access a release from MDOT with a summary of each project and additional information (click here). [#MITransport]
DOI Designates "Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail" - Feb 21: The Department of Interior (DOI), National Park Service (NPS) published a Federal Register notice [78 FR 11981-11984] announcing Special Regulations for the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The rule designates the "Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail" currently under construction within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore as a route for bicycle use. The approximately 27-mile-long trail will generally parallel major State highways (M-22 and M-109)and offer visitors safe, non-motorized access to the park. National Park Service general regulations require promulgation of a special regulation to designate new routes for bicycle use outside developed areas or off park roads. The rule becomes effective March 25, 2013.
Access the complete FR announcement with extensive background information (click here). [#MILand, #MITransport]
Committee Approves Substitute Biodiversity Bill - Feb 21: The Senate Natural Resources, Environment and Great Lakes, chaired by Senate Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba), held another hearing on SB 78 [See WIMS 2/14/13], the controversial bill that would require MDNR to remove many biodiversity concepts from State forest management. Following extensive testimony from environmental, public sportsmen and forest product interests, most of which were opposed, the Committee approved a Substitute bill (S-1) 5-1, with one excused. The bill now goes to the Senate Floor for consideration. As previously reported, a similar bill was approved by the Senate in the last session by a vote of 26-11, but was never considered in the House [See WIMS 2/6/13].
Access the draft minutes of the meeting including a list of those testifying (click here). Access links to the latest written testimony submitted and link to previous testimony (click here). Access legislative details which should include more details on the S-1 substitute soon (click here). Access a lengthy legislative analysis with more details (click here). Access NREPA, Part 355, Biological Diversity Conservation (click here). Access extensive information on MDNR's Living Legacies initiative and biodiversity (click here). [#MIAll]
Michigan Legislative Tracking
Newly introduced bills, if any, are listed below. Click on the bill number for complete status, full text, & analyses. Uppercase is Senate action; lowercase is House action. Otherwise, for a complete list of environmental legislation this session (click here).
WIMS Daily is produced each business day (46 weeks/year, some exceptions) and is available at a reduced rate of $189/year to Michigan Waste Report subscribers. WIMS Daily is also available separately in a National ($239/year, eNewsUSA) and Michigan edition ($339/year; $289/year Local Government rate). Copyright © 2012. Permission is granted for Internal, Same-Office, Distribution Only. All messages are archived and searchable on Yahoo Groups (click here).
Waste Information & Management Services, Inc. (WIMS), Since 1980
Newsletter Publishers: Michigan Waste Report; REGTrak; WIMS Daily; & eNewsUSA
Blog Publishers: eNewsUSA; Environmental - Appeals Court; Great Lakes Environment; & Environmental Federal Register
No. 1 Environmental Business Portal: EcoBizPort.com
Jeff Dauphin, President
767 Kornoelje Dr. NE, Comstock Park, MI 49321-9537
Phone: 231-408-2868


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What Really Happened in Jenin? The Independent Newspaper of Britain Has Published the First Comprehensive Investigation
Israeli Soldiers Kill Three Young Palestinian Teenagers Trying to Infiltrate the Jewish Settlement of Netzarim: A First Hand Account From Reporter Robert Fisk
At An Unprecedented Vatican Summit, U.S. Cardinals Back Away From An Anticipated Zero-Tolerance Policy in Dealing with Sexually Abusive Priests
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Do NonTheists Need NonTheists In Congress To Be Represented?
U.S. Representative Peter Stark has been the first, and only, openly nontheist member of Congress (he has also been, over the last two years, tied for position of fourth most liberal member of the House of Representatives). In January, however, Stark will be retiring from Congress. He has been replaced by Eric Swalwell, who is registered to vote as a Democrat, but campaigned with the support of what he describes as "a coalition of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents".
It remains to be seen whether Swalwell will be as reliably liberal as Stark. It seems likely, however, that Swalwell won't be a strong supporter of the separation of church and state. Swalwell has publicly identified himself as a Christian and criticized Stark for votes seeking to uphold the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion.
American nontheists have looked to Arizona for a possible nontheist replacement of Peter Stark. During this year's campaign, they identified Kyrsten Sinema, from Arizona's new 9th congressional district, as a nontheist. Sinema's campaign, however, stated that she does not categorize herself as a nontheist, and simply prefers to deal with governmental issues from a secular perspective.
Does it matter whether Sinema is theist or nontheist?
The Constitution of the United States of America states that there shall be no religious tests for public office. A test requiring non-religious identity seems as inappropriate under this provision as a test requiring religious identity.
Voters choose candidates to go to Congress to do a job – working on legislation and representing the practical needs of constituents. Matters of identity aren't part of the job description. What members of Congress believe in private isn't relevant. What they do in public is.
Sinema has committed to respecting the separation of church and state. Nontheist voters should be satisfied with that form of representation, and leave questions of identity alone.


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26. 05. 2008 - Czech Airlines Launches Regular Service between Prague and Heraklion in Crete
Prague, 26 May 2008
From the end of May, Czech Airlines will connect Prague with the tourist centre of Heraklion, on the Greek island of Crete. Czech Airlines will offer the service twice weekly. The departure times have been selected primarily to suit the tourist clientele. Czech Airlines will start operating the new route on 30 May 2008, deploying its most modern Airbus A320 aircraft, for 162 passengers.
"Czech Airlines expects the Heraklion route to be used primarily by tourists, and not only from the Czech Republic, but also tourists from Scandinavia and Germany, using connecting flights and a transfer in Prague," said Czech Airlines' Vice President for Marketing and Product Development, Petr Pištělák, with respect to the new route. In addition to the new route from Prague to Heraklion, Czech Airlines also flies to Athens and Thessalonica in Greece. Czech Airlines has not previously offered regular flights to Heraklion, but it has carried tourists to this Cretan airport on charter flights for many years.
By introducing this regular service, Czech Airlines seeks to satisfy the ever-increasing demand from tourists, who increasingly prefer individually organised trips and travelling on their vacation on scheduled flights, over organised trips with tour operators and charter carriage.
The Flight Schedule of the New Service
Czech Airlines aircraft will fly to Heraklion in high season, i.e., starting 30 May, every Monday and Friday at 10:55, landing in Heraklion after less than three hours, at 14:40. The aircraft will return at 15:25, landing in Prague at 17:10. This will enable tourists to use these flights for popular long weekends at the seaside.
Heraklion is a major port in the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Greek island of Crete. It lies on the Northern shore, and has about 150,000 inhabitants. The city's ancient history reaches back to the Minoan era. According to archaeological finds, Heraklion was founded before 2,000 B.C. From that era, the ruins of the Palace of Knosos have survived up to the present. According to ancient Greek myths, the island of Crete is considered to be the birthplace of Zeus – the ruler of the Olympian gods.
Daniela Hupáková
Communications Director
Czech Airlines Press Spokesperson


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While any effort to tax the churches has always been pooh-poohed in the past, in light of the churches increased political muscularity I can only hope that concerned citizens will reconsider our attitude towards these corrupt organizations that now far exceed the power, influence, and wealth of the Mafia.
How much does the privileging of these businesses cost us?
University of Tampa professor Ryan T. Cragun along with students Stephanie Yeager and Desmond Vega have published a study on the Council for Secular Humanism website:
Research Report: How Secular Humanists (and Everyone Else) Subsidize Religion in the United States
While some people may be bothered by the fact that there are pastors who live in multimillion dollar homes, this is old news to most. But here is what should bother you about these expensive homes: You are helping to pay for them! You pay for them indirectly, the same way local, state, and federal governments in the United States subsidize religion—to the tune of about $71 billion every year.
71 Billion? – Forget the Corporations, Tax the Churches
Current Status: Blessed (1)
Seeded on Mon Jun 18, 2012 6:34 AM
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Business Law
Ask a Business Lawyer. Get Business Law Questions Answered ASAP.
We are a malaysian company and has granted the right to a USA company, this company is going to pay us a one time license fee. in order to avoid a 30% withholding tax, we intend to register an LLC in USA so to avoid the 30% withholding tax.
we want to know if
1. when we receive the license fee pay to our USA LLC, what is the tax rate?
2. i learn that there is no tax for LLC but the profit shall be borne by the shareholder, so the received license fee as a gross income are taxable ?
3. Is the license fee classified as FDAP and "deductions are not allowed against FDAP income "?
Please guide.
1. The LLC is not a taxed entity all the profits and losses and of the entity flow to the individual members
2. the license fee less business expenses will be considered profit which is distributed to the members who are taxed on this profit
3. The income should be taxed as ECI (Effectively Connected Income) and not FDAP. Though certain ECI income can be categorized as FDAP income, because you are a member of a partnership that at any time during the tax year is engaged in a trade or business in the United States, you are considered to be engaged in a trade or business in the United States.
You may ask how are you a partnership, in the eyes of the IRS LLCs are taxed as partnerships and therefore are partnerships. In this case opening a US LLC is going to be beneficial because the US LLC will receive the software license and distribute it to the members (you) which would qualify you to file ECI.
The actual tax rate would vary for each member of the LLC based on the amount that each person receives since varying amounts would trigger a different tax rate. The final amount will only be known once all the deduction and expenses are known.
For any future questions please ask me as your exclusive expert to avoid other expert mistakenly answering the question
hi i have a question today.
in the case that i incorporate an llc company in usa and open an offshore bank account in hong kong. I need to know this apply to 30% withholding tax when our usa client going to send us royalty to our hong kong banking account. please advise.


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The New York Fed engages with individuals, households and businesses in the Second District and maintains an active dialogue in the region. The Bank gathers and shares regional economic intelligence to inform our community and policy makers, and promotes sound financial and economic decisions through community development and education programs.
NEW YORK--The Federal Reserve Bank of New York Monday approved the application by Rome, MHC, and its subsidiary, Rome Bancorp, Inc., both of Rome, NY, for Rome, MHC to acquire a majority of Rome Bancorp, Inc.s common stock and, immediately thereafter, for Rome Bancorp, Inc. to acquire 100 percent of the common stock of The Rome Savings Bank, Rome, NY.
According to standard procedure, the proposal cannot be completed for 15 days.
The Reserve Bank acted under authority delegated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.


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The Sims 3 Console Gameplay Trailer!!Published by Mike W on June 14th, 2010
You know one of the worst things about the week of E3 is the fact that there's no way I'll have any time to actually play videogames this week. Of course, if I was at the conference that would be a totally different story. I'd be able to play all sorts of games if I was there, but I'm not. Did I say earlier today I was okay with missing out on the biggest, most important, super awesome, one conference to rule all conferences? Yeah, it's gonna be a long week…
You guys all know I have love for the EA team that work in The Sims-iverse. (Side-note: The Sims-iverse is the totally BadAss name I just came up with that encompasses all things Sims. I should be getting paid for this…) So, when they hit me up with new details and a gameplay trailer for The Sims 3 on consoles, I spread the love to all my loyal readers. Oh yes I did just make it sound like I get more readers than Oh No They Didn't!
The Sims 3 is coming to the Wii, as well as the HDC's, some time in October and I can't wait. Mrs. Mike and I both loved The Sims 3 and World Adventures on PC, and we would have gotten Ambitions by now except our fridge decided it hated our guts and is slowly committing suicide and taking all of our food with it. One of the special features the Wii version of the game will have is an exclusive new Beach area that will boast new goals, Karma powers, and direct control of your Sim. In other words, it's gonna poo on the HDC's version. HAHA!! Check the premiere gameplay trailer for The Sims 3 on consoles below. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.
3 Responses to "The Sims 3 Console Gameplay Trailer!!"
Jun 15th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Hah I'm honestly the first comment to this amazing read.
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Are you interested in Chicago History and Culture? Click on the following link http://explore. Monday-Thursday Saturday Sunday Is it true? Click below for links to help evaluate resources and spot fake news.
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Are you interested in Chicago History and Culture? Click on the following link http://explore.
Is it true? Click below for links to help evaluate resources and spot fake news.
Search for Books, Movies, and Music
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Music Review: Vanessa Perea - 'Soulful Days'
Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, July 6, 2014
Given the number of fine jazz singers (and some not so fine) recording these days, a new voice that stands out in the crowd is a welcome addition. Vanessa Perea is just such a voice. Her debut album from Zoho, Soulful Days, is a throwback to the queens of jazz singing. Ella, Sarah-Perea has the kind of promising chops that perhaps one day will have her joining the hierarchy. If Soulful Days is any indication, she is well on her way.
The 11-tune set includes a couple of standards, some tunes penned by jazz men and a bit of Latin jazz, giving the singer an opportunity to show she is not a one-trick pony. Backed by a quintet of stellar sidemen, working with arrangements by trombonist Robert Edwards, Perea takes each and every song and makes it her own. Whether she's singing an old warhorse like "Tenderly" or lyrics she wrote herself to Kenny Dorham's "K. D.'s Motion," which she calls "Let Me Tell You," she plays her voice the way a fine musician plays his horn. Her "Tenderly" is HER "Tenderly."
She absolutely romps through "Too Marvelous for Words," led by the hard-driving drums of Evan Sherman, who also joins with bassist Dylan Shamat for some fine duo work on "December Blue." "Let Me Tell You" gives trumpeter Matt Jodrill one of his limited opportunities to show what he can do.
Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Triste" has her opening with some vocalise before latching on to the bossa nova beat and features solo work from pianist Dave Lantz, before Edwards comes in on the trombone. Indeed, Edwards in many respects dominates the accompaniment. There is hardly a track where he isn't front and center complementing Perea's bell-like vocals.
Often Perea is busy scatting, trading lines with Edwards as they work their way through a tune. It starts immediately in the album's opener, "Devil May Care" and continues through the album. She does a lot of dynamic scatting throughout with the kind of creative sound that defines jazz singing for many listeners.
And if she is on top of her game when it comes to upbeat numbers, she is no less impressive in her heartfelt performances of ballads like "Jim" and "Luz do Sol." But when it comes right down to it, her hundred-yard dash scatting through the Bud Powell bopper "Celia" is something special, and, for that matter, so is Vanessa Perea.


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The dollar edged down below ¥104.40 in Tokyo trading Thursday, pressured by sluggish data that raised concerns over the course of the Chinese economy.
At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥104.33-34, compared with ¥104.35-37 at the same time Wednesday. The euro was at $1.3588-3589, up from $1.3544-3544, and at ¥141.77-80, up from ¥141.34-37.
The greenback moved above ¥104.60 in early trading after attracting purchases in New York overnight on the back of a rise in U.S. long-term Treasury yields.
The dollar firmed above ¥104.80 in midmorning trading, helped by demand from Japanese importers as well as by purchases from short-term players following early gains in the Nikkei average.
But the dollar soon fell back after the sluggish reading in the HSBC Chinese manufacturing purchasing managers' index for January triggered selling of the Australian dollar versus the yen.
The greenback remained weak in the afternoon, reflecting the Nikkei's slump into negative territory. But its downside was supported by buybacks.
"The dollar's early gains versus the yen were wiped off, with market players hoping to see upcoming overseas economic indicators," said an official of a bank-affiliated brokerage house.
The dollar is seen as likely to stay in tight ranges below ¥104.50 for the time being, market sources said.
"The dollar's topside is expected to be limited due to the dearth of fresh trading incentives that would lift it above ¥105," said an official of a foreign exchange margin trading service firm.
The market's focus is on the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.


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Nicolas Cage Finds Outcast
Hayden Christensen's also off to China
It's the movie 'star' team-up you didn't know you desperately needed! Get ready for a match-up between two titans of thespianism as Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen are listed as part of the cast for a new action drama called Outcast.
According to The Wrap's sources, the pair will be part of the $25 million film set in 10th century China. Little is known about the exact plot for now, but it apparently follows a warrior who is looking to redeem himself by rescuing a princess.
James Dormer is writing the script and Nick Powell a veteran of stunts and fights from the likes of Gladiator, The Last Samurai, Cinderella Man, Push and Resident Evil: Retribution is stepping up from second unit to first as director.
Arclight Films is backing the project and will be offering international rights to the movie at next month's American Film Market. Assuming all the financing locks into place, the pic should be in front of cameras next year.
Cage has a couple of movies lined up, including David Gordon Green's Joe and I Am Wrath for William Friedkin. He'll also be heard in DreamWorks toon The Croods and pop up briefly as Big Daddy in Kick-Ass 2.
Christensen, meanwhile, is attached to conspiracy thriller The Diplomat.


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Ullah, Ahsan (1980) IMPACT OF URBANIZATION ON SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE RURAL AREA OF THE KARACHI PLAN. PhD thesis, University of Karachi, Karachi.
The rural settlements in the immediate hinterland of the Karachi metropolitan area have been of late undergoing rapid changes ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂàa trend which emerged only recently, that is, in the short period of last 10-15 years. Considerable changes have been identified in the structural, morphological and functional patterns, and are exemplified by seven settlements pre-selected for analysis. The change signifies a trend of rural-urban transition which seems to have over-taken some of them. The study unfolds the process of so-called ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂpredefinitive urbanizationÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂàas demonstrated in the area, in a three dimensional approach and a theoretical frame-work involving empirical analysis and discrimination. The study is divided into nine chapters. The first three represent the normal concern and occupation which the objectives, theoretical frame and methodological aspects. Following these a background of the general characteristics of the area and the settlements has been inducted. This is followed by a cross-section analysis of the settlements with respect to their structural, morphological and functional changes. Chapter five discusses the structural change ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂàchanges of occupational structure and the relationship of the age structure of the active male population to the change and the various stages or states of the transition. Chapter six is concerned with occupational movements and the patterns of occupational change. Chapter seven analysis the spatical aspect of the structural change, the trends in the distribution of work places and the significance of the emerging employment zones distinct from the traditional areas of rural employment. Chapter eight is mostly devoted to house type changes and trends and gives a concise description of the internal patterns and their changes. Chapter nine analyses the functional bases and the significance of the service centres for the structural changes characteristic of predefinitive urbanization.
|Item Type:
|Thesis (PhD)
|Uncontrolled Keywords:
|karachi, urbanization, rural settlements, karachi metropolitan, occupational change, structural change, employment zones
|Social Sciences(g) > Geography (g7)
|ID Code:
|Deposited By:
|Mr. Muhammad Asif
|Deposited On:
|27 Oct 2006
|Last Modified:
|04 Oct 2007 21:02
Repository Staff Only: item control page


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excited about this find! I'm celiac, food was good and i didn't get sick.
Gluten free menu was incredible! Had the sweet and sour chicken, so good. I'm EXTREMELY sensitive, and did not get sick after dinner or with the left overs. Go for it!
I tried the General Wangs chicken and it is so good. Plenty of chicken with broccoli and candied walnuts. You have to be careful though the waitress almost gave me regular soy sauce. gf soy sauce comes in a little side bowel with a spoon not in a shaker bottle.
The 1st time I went, things were too salty, but I was grateful to have fried shrimp so I didn't care. The second time there were mix ups. After having ordered gluten-free and no carrots, I got carrots. When they brought another dish to the table, they told me an ingredient in it contained gluten. Good job in the kitchen being on top of their ingredients and letting me know, but not so great with the menu & waiter being inaccurate about an item. They remade the plates & it was yummy, but I got a little scared off.
They have a large GF menu. I was pleasantly surprised to see some items you don't normally see such as salt and pepper shrimp or calamari. We had Kung Pow Chicken and Sweet and Sour Chicken along with S & P shrimp everything was very good. They make each item to order in a clean wok with clean utensils.
Great gluten free choices.
Went on a Sunday for early dinner. No wait. Huge place but a little loud because of the bar area. Wait staff was helpful and the kung pao chicken was the best I've ever had
Dedicated gluten free menu, everything was great!
I hadn't been there since I found out about my gluten intolerance and was delighted to find they have a dedicated gluten-free menu. Even the bus boy knew the round plate meant my dish was gluten-free. Well done!
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Jacobson, Rose
Ref: JL11320
Status: Located
West Ham Jewish Cemetery (Buckingham Rd), London, 1. England, UK
Notes: West Ham Jewish Cemetery: Opened in 1857 and closed in 2002.
Status: Headstone photos: incomplete.
General views of the cemetery can be found here
Visiting arrangements: contact the United Synagogue for more information.
If you have any photos you would like to donate to Cemetery Scribes please Contact Us THANK YOU!!


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In Memoriam
Jerome B. (Jerry) Abraham
Jerome B. (Jerry) Abraham of De Pere, WI, died on April 24, 2014 after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born on January 21, 1932, in Oshkosh, WI, to the late Rueben and Myrtle Abraham. He attended Howlett, a one room school in Van Dyne, WI, from 1937 -1943. In Fond Du Lac he attended Lincoln School, Roosevelt Junior High, and Goodrich High School where he graduated in 1949. Jerry went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor's of Music Degree in 1957 and Masters of Music in 1965. He was a music educator in the Dodgeville, WI, Public Schools from 1957-1960 teaching both band and chorus. His teaching career then continued at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay; there he spent 28 years as an Associate Professor of Music. Note: He was the first full time music teacher at UW-GB and started the first Summer Music Camps at that institution.
Passing of former music professor Jerry Abraham
(Published April 27, 2014, Log newsletter, UW-Green Bay)


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Michael Schumacher's family thank fans for message of goodwill since ski accident
Spokesman for Lausanne Hospital says Schumacher facing "long haul"
By Pete Gill
Last Updated: 18/06/14 4:26pm
Michael Schumacher's family have posted a heartfelt message of thanks to the F1 legend's legions of supporters as the seven-times World Champion embarks on a 'long phase of rehabilitation' at the University Hospital of Lausanne.
It was announced on Monday that Schumacher is no longer in a coma and had left Grenoble Hospital in southern France, over five months after the skiing accident in which he suffered life-threatening head injuries.
In a news post published on Tuesday evening on Schumacher's personal website, his family thanked fans for the messages of goodwill they have received since his accident.
'Thank you all so much!' they wrote. 'We would like to thank all the people who wish Michael well for their positive energies. We are sure they had helped him already.'
Schumacher has been transferred to the University Hospital of Lausanne in Switzerland, twenty minutes from the family's home on Lake Geneva.
While the encouraging official confirmation that Schumacher is no longer in a coma has been universally welcomed, a spokesman for the Lausanne hospital has urged caution.
"It won't be days. It could be for the long haul," Darcy Christen told The Daily Telegraph.
According to Christen, the institute is well equipped to deal with the considerable media scrutiny generated by treating a world-renowned figure such as Schumacher.
"In this area of Switzerland there are many personalities and so we do receive patients who are very well-known," he explained.
"We therefore have "Regime VIP" in place for such people. Their privacy, like all patients' privacy, needs to be respected and they may need heightened security.
"In this particular case we have implemented special measures but I cannot elaborate on this."
Schumacher has lived in Switzerland for over 20 years with the family moving into their Lake Geneva estate in 2008.
"He's a little bit at home here," said Christen. "There is a private area for him and his family. And the family feels at home in Lausanne, they know the area."


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For there was no anger or sullenness in Ray's grief; he was just and simply sorry.
We had confidence in Cypher's sullenness and smouldering ferocity.
His brother, goaded out of his sullenness, turned upon him with a tirade of profane abuse, leaving the boy shamed and silent.
Theodora bent her head and cast down her eyes, not in sullenness, but in sorrow.
"With you," he made answer, and something of sullenness had by this time crept into his voice.
sullenness arises from capricious displeasure not founded in reason.
Then turning to me—You can bear the imputation of sullenness I see!
Morty fell back on sullenness, and bade him manage it his own way.
Despite Clarence's sullenness, Warwick had discovered no reason, as yet, to doubt his good faith.
As for her fits of sullenness and irritation, he had been initiated into their mystery on his wedding-day.
1570s, alteration of Middle English soleyn "unique, singular," from Anglo-French *solein, formed on the pattern of Old French soltain, from Old French soul "single" (see sole (n.2)). The sense shift in Middle English from "solitary" to "morose" occurred late 14c.


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Donya Bohanen
Poems by Donya Bohanen : 6 / 9
Music (Everyday Things) - Poem by Donya Bohanen
It is the sound that wakes me up in the morning
What I listen to as I get ready for school
What's playing in my head as I walk to the bus top
What I steal from Donya, so I don't have to ride the bus in silence
What I dance to in Ms. Clark's class
What Keith and I sing while waiting in line at lunch
It's what my fourth hour is based around
It's what gets me through 5th and 6th hour.
The ring tone that gets me through practice
What I listen to as I do my homework
It is the sound that puts me to sleep at night
It is me and I am it
Listen to this poem:
Poems by Donya Bohanen : 6 / 9
Comments about Music (Everyday Things) by Donya Bohanen
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Poem Submitted: Thursday, February 1, 2007
Poem Edited: Friday, January 7, 2011
Donya Bohanen's Other Poems
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Maya Angelou
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If You Forget Me
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Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
Rudyard Kipling
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe


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How to make your webcam see in infra red! Just wish I could get my webcam to work. It's the crappy one IOL gave away with their broadband package and doesn't play well with Linux or even Windows if a recent thread on ILUG is to be believed!
One Reply to "Infra Red Webcam"
I use to have the driver but I lost it….and I lost the paper with the model of this "THING", can you tell me?