Public

RSVP by 4:00 p.m. February 12, 2010, to learn about the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force's proposed marine spatial planning framework for coordinating many ocean and coastal activities by multiple agencies and actors.

Billed as "a resource to support citizens negotiating with big energy," this brand new Center for Future Civic Media service could become a useful tool for energy and environment reporting.

Environmental reporters who use databases to find and build stories have a fresh windfall, including three new datasets from EPA, plus many others relevant to the EJ beat.

A study by Univ. of California-Irvine researchers has found that while grass itself acted as a carbon sink, when other factors are taken into account — fuel burned to maintain the lawn, emissions from fertilizer spread to help it grow, etc. — four times as much carbon was emitted than was absorbed.

After intense recovery efforts resulting in an increase from ~400 nesting pairs in 1963 to the current count of >7,000, the bald eagle may soon be removed from the USFWS list of endangered and threatened species, with monitoring ongoing for at least five more years.

This a good time to report on the fate of the bald eagle; the National Wildlife Federation provides a couple of lists that pinpoint at least one spot in every state except Hawaii where the big birds can typically be found.

States and territories are each designing and running their own unique rebate program, with funding from the US DOE for development and implementation.