S.
4444,
Crow Revenue Act, to take certain mineral interests into trust for the
benefit of the Crow Tribe of Montana
S.
4633,
Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 2024
S.
4643,
Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2024
S.
4705,
Yavapai Apache Nation Water Rights Settlement Act
S.
4998,
Navajo Nation Rio San José Stream System Water Rights Settlement Act
of 2024
Business meeting to vote on:
S.
465,
BADGES for Native Communities Act, to
require Federal law enforcement agencies to report on cases of missing
or murdered Indians
S.
2908,
Indian Buffalo Management Act, to assist Tribal governments in the
management of buffalo and buffalo habitat and the reestablishment of
buffalo on Indian land
S.
4370,
Tribal Forest Protection Act Amendments Act of 2024
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation, will convene a full committee
hearing
on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, at 10 A.M.
EDT to consider the following Presidential
nominations:
Nominees:
Carl Bentzel to serve another term as a Commissioner on the Federal
Maritime Commission
Thomas Chapman to serve another term as a Member on the National
Transportation Safety Board
Lanhee Chen to be a Director on the Amtrak Board of Directors
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
H.R.
9671,
Department of Energy Artificial Intelligence Act of 2024. Provides
guidance for and investment in the research and development activities
of artificial intelligence at the Department of Energy.
H.R.
9710,
Small Modular Reactor Demonstration Act of 2024. Amends the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 to support a program to advance the research,
development, demonstration, and commercial application of small
modular reactors and micro-reactors in order to accelerate the
availability of United States-based technologies.
H.R.
9720,
AI Incident Reporting and Security Enhancement Act. Directs the
Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to
update the national vulnerability database to reflect vulnerabilities
to artificial intelligence systems and study the need for voluntary
reporting related to artificial intelligence security and safety
incidents.
H.R.
9723,
National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program Reauthorization Act
of 2024. Reauthorizes the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program
(NWIRP), providing critical funding for the program to continue its
research into how to mitigate the injuries and property damage caused
by windstorms.
H. Res. 1469 – Ensuring
accountability for key officials in the Biden-Harris administration
responsible for decisionmaking and execution failures throughout the
withdrawal from Afghanistan.
H.R. 8790 would fast-track logging on public lands, bypassing essential
environmental reviews and endangering wildlife, clean air, water, and
the health and safety of our communities, explains the John Muir
Project.
NEPA Rollbacks: This bill weakens the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), limiting environmental
reviews and public input—key goals of Project 2025.
Endangered Species Act (ESA): Provisions in H.R. 8790 undermine
ESA protections for wildlife habitats,
reflecting Project 2025’s push for economic interests over
environmental safeguards.
Federal Land Management: H.R. 8790 promotes increased logging on
BLM and National Forest lands, aligning with
Project 2025’s priorities for extraction industries.
Anti-Climate Science Rhetoric: This bill misuses wildfire narratives
to justify logging, despite the fact that most fires this year have
occurred in grass, rangeland, and shrublands—not forests. This
highlights that logging is not a solution to the real causes of
wildfire activity, such as climate change and urban development. For
detailed fire data, please refer to this tool.
Epstein recently
participated
in the Alliance For Responsible Citizenship conference convened by
Jordan Peterson with support from the Heritage Foundation.
The purpose of this
hearing
is to explore the benefits and risks of marine carbon dioxide removal
(mCDR) approaches as they relate to carbon capture and sequestration. In
addition, this hearing will inform members on research and development
of this technology and address scientific gaps and deficiencies facing
researchers and scientists today.
Noah Deich, Senior Advisor, Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon
Management, U.S. Department of Energy
Dr. Sarah Kapnick, Chief Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce
Ben Tarbell, CEO and Co-Founder, Ebb Carbon
Dr. Scott Doney, Joe D. and Helen J. Kington Professor in
Environmental Change, The University of Virginia
The ocean is the Earth’s largest carbon sink, holding 42 times the
amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that is in the atmosphere and absorbing
25% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions each year. Global
atmospheric carbon reduction efforts have led scientists to try to
enhance the ocean’s natural sequestration abilities by developing mCDR
techniques. Leveraging the ocean can help diversify the range of carbon
dioxide removal approaches, reducing the pressure on land-based
approaches.1 Marine CDR can also have
non-carbon environmental benefits, such as reducing ocean acidification,
replenishing ecosystems, and providing jobs. However, most mCDR
techniques have not been tested at scale, and a few are at the earliest
stages of research. Dedicated resources, including streamlined
permitting, to enable research will help clarify the uncertainties
associated with mCDR.
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is home to the
Ocean Acidification Program (OAP), established to better understand
impacts of ocean acidification and adaptation. In May 2023, the program,
in collaboration with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory,
published their paper Strategy for NOAA Carbon
Dioxide Removal Research: A White Paper documenting a potential
NOAACDR Science
Strategy as an element of NOAA’s Climate
Interventions Portfolio. In September 2023,
OAP announced $23.4 million in funding for
public and private research in mCDR, with a focus on understanding
uncertainties and filling knowledge gaps for different mCDR approaches.
These awards support 17 projects with partners from 47 institutions to
further enhance efficiency of marine research and provide
NOAA with funding and information sharing
opportunities to advance mCDR development.
The Department of Energy (DOE) supports mCDR as a key technology
development area. It is a central component of
DOE’s Carbon Negative Shot — calling for
innovation in CDR pathways that can capture
CO2 and store it at gigaton scales for less
than $100/net metric ton of CO2-equivalent. In
October 2023, DOE announced $36 million for 11
projects across 8 states, funneled through the Advanced Research
Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) Sensing Exports of Anthropogenic
Carbon through Ocean Observation (SEA-CO2) program, to accelerate the
development of mCDR technologies. The focus of the projects receiving
these funds is to advance sensing and modeling techniques that more
accurately measure the impacts of mCDR technologies. Supported projects
include development of fiber optic sensor cables, micro-electronic
seafloor probes, and ocean carbon flux monitoring. If successful,
SEA-CO2 measurement, reporting, and
verification technology innovations will ensure that the quantity and
quality of emission removals are correctly valued. 
