Potter's Weal

It’s a crap shoot when a person’s main background is a legislator and then to become responsible to actually administer something. As several have quoted, "They debate and do nothing else, a debating club" That was Obama’s weakness. It’s always been Bernie Sanders problem. Biden should be much better for his years as Vice P. The key to being a successful administrator is to have staff that complement your skills and experience and not mirror them.

Surely her values are in the right place per protecting the environment, etc. She will have a lot of power within the agency and, hopefully knows the pressure points. First job, undo all of Trump’s horrible actions.

Thanks for the article, Bruce.

Andy

PS Groundhogs Day will be here before you know it.

On Tue, Dec 29, 2020 at 1:52 PM Bruce G. Potter <bpotter> wrote:

from the newsletter of the Congressional analytical site: "The GovTrack” < https://govtrackinsider.com/deb-haaland-is-joe-bidens-nominee-for-secretary-of-the-interior-how-has-she-voted-on-interior-37109a219769 >

Deb Haaland is Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior;
How has she voted on Interior issues in Congress?

GovTrack.us

Dec 28 · 7 min read — Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM1)

A member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM1) has been nominated as the first-ever Native American Cabinet secretary. The first-term congresswoman, previously chair of the New Mexico Democratic Party, currently serves as Vice Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, including as Chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands.

The $12.6 billion department she is poised to run, subject to Senate confirmation, controls about one-fifth of all U.S. land. It also houses such bureaus as the National Parks Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

How has Rep. Haaland voted in Congress on such issues, and what legislation has she introduced or cosponsored on these subjects?

Works across the aisle

In 2019, among all House freshmen, Rep. Haaland introduced the most bills with at least one bipartisan cosponsor, with 13. (Reps. Anthony Brindisi [D-NY22] and Josh Harder [D-CA10] tied for second place, with 12 each.)

Curiously, that bipartisan outreach did not apply nearly as much in the opposite direction, when she was cosponsoring other legislators’ bills. Among all representatives, freshmen or otherwise, her rate of cosponsoring bills introduced by members across the aisle ranked 11th-least.

In 2019, she introduced more House bills that attracted a Senate companion than any other House member, freshman or otherwise, with 15. (Reps. Judy Chu [D-CA27] and Rosa DeLauro [D-CT3] tied for second place, with 14 each.) This reflects Haaland’s ability to work well with the upper chamber, possibly fortelling a relatively uncontroversial confirmation vote in January.

Three bills enacted

Rep. Haaland was the lead sponsor of three bills that were enacted into law so far during her first term. That’s a pretty good number for any member of Congress during these polarized times, but especially for a first-term representative who doesn’t serve in an official leadership role. All three laws dealt with Native American policy, which Haaland would also deal with at Interior.

Not Invisible Act

Native American rates of murder, rape, and violent crime are all higher than the national averages. The Not Invisible Act creates a new position within the Interior Department dealing specifically with murder, trafficking, and missing Native Americans, and forms a new joint advisory committee between the Interior and Justice Departments on those issues.

“Every woman deserves to feel safe, but women in Native communities are going missing without a trace,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “The congressional members of federally recognized tribes are stepping up for our communities by working to set up an advisory board that is specifically focused on finding solutions to address this silent crisis,” referring to the bill being cosponsored by Native American Reps. Tom Cole (R-OK4), Sharice Davids (D-KS3), and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK2).

The Senate passed it by voice vote on March 11, then the House followed suit on September 21, and President Trump signed it into law on October 10, 2020.

PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act

Since 1975, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act has allowed Native American tribes to self-govern through many programs and services that were previously administered federally. The PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act, which stands for Practical Reforms and Other Goals to Reinforce the Effectiveness of Self-Governance and Self-Determination, makes some technical and bureaucratic tweaks and reforms to further expand tribes’ right to self-governance.

“Self-governance has been extraordinarily beneficial for Tribes to manage successful programs with the flexibility to utilize federal funds in a way that best fits the needs of their communities. Tribes are their own best stewards,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “However, serious gaps continue to exist that hinder the full exercise of Tribal self-governance.”

The Senate passed it by voice vote on June 27, 2019; the House did the same on September 21, 2020; and President Trump signed it into law on October 21, 2020.

Native American Business Incubators Program Act

Native Americans have the highest poverty rate of any racial group. The Native American Business Incubators Program Act creates a $5 million annual grant program within the Interior Department for tribal businesses, educational institutions, or other organizations.

When I was a young single mom trying to make ends meet, I started and ran a salsa company. That experience could have been so different if there was more access to resources,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “This bill will make sure future entrepreneurs in Indian Country can build businesses and break cycles of poverty in our communities.”

The Senate passed it by voice vote on June 27, 2019; the House did the same on September 21, 2020; and President Trump signed it into law on October 20, 2020.
Three bills introduced

Rep. Haaland has also introduced a number of bills dealing with issues she would tackle at the Interior Department. Here are three of them.

ANTIQUITIES Act

In December 2017, President Trump completed the largest rollback of national monument designations in U.S. history, reducing the size of the Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — both in Utah — by a cumulative 2 million acres.

A month into her congressional tenure, the very first bill Rep. Haaland ever introduced was the ANTIQUITIES Act, which stands for “America’s Natural Treasures of Immeasurable Quality Unite, Inspire, and Together Improve the Economies of States.” The bill would clarify that Congress must officially declare any national monuments. It would also re-expand Bears Ears to 1.9 million acres and designate about 250,000 acres in Rep. Haaland’s home state of New Mexico as federally protected.

The name is a deliberate homage to the original Antiquities Act of 1906, which originally allowed the president to declare national monuments.

“We love our public lands, we love our open spaces, and we care about the future we’re going to leave for our children, but this administration has been illegally attacking our nation’s treasures so it can sell them off to oil companies and developers,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “As my first piece of legislation this bill expands on my efforts to fight climate change by protecting land from extraction, honor our sacred sites, and ensure our beautiful places are here for future generations. Our public lands are not for sale.”

Republicans contend not only that President Trump had the power to recede or rescind the monuments if he chose, but also that the bill may be unconstitutional. In the 1920 Supreme Court case Cameron v. United States, the Court unanimously upheld that President Theodore Roosevelt had the right to declare the Grand Canyon a national monument.

Despite receiving 113 cosponsors, all Democrats, the bill never received a vote in the Democratic-controlled House.

Climate Stewardship Act

From 1933 to 1942, during the Great Depression, the federal government ran the program Civilian Conservation Corps, employing hundreds of thousands of people to plant more than three billion trees and construct trails in more than 800 parks.

The Climate Stewardship Act would resurrect this program under the new name Stewardship Corps. The 84-page bill also contains provisions restoring 2+ million acres of coastal wetlands and investing in renewable energy.

“Climate change is an immediate threat our communities face that calls for bold solutions. However, deforestation and some current agricultural practices are making global warming worse,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. The bill would “incentivize farming practices that reduce emissions and promote reforestation. These steps are important to reversing climate change impacts that threaten the health and safety of our communities and our planet.”

The bill has attracted 10 cosponsors, all Democrats, but has not received a vote in the Democratic-controlled House.

Reconciliation in Place Names Act

Part of the Interior Department, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names designates the official names of lands, mountains, rivers, and other geographic features. A 2015 study estimated there may be as many as 1,441 domestic geographic features which had potentially offensive official names, such as Dead Negro Spring.

The Reconciliation in Place Names Act would create a new 16-member Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names to advise the board. This committee would consist of four Native American tribe members, four people with expertise in civil rights or race relations, four people with expertise in anthropology or cultural studies, one person representing a tribal organization, with the last three intended to represent the general public at large.

“All visitors to public lands deserve to feel welcome and comfortable while enjoying all that nature has to offer them. However, offensive or racist place names are restricting access and prevent many from feeling welcome on lands that belong to all of us,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “It’s past time to change the offensive names of public lands, especially with input from groups who have been discriminated against.”

The bill has attracted 15 cosponsors, all Democrats, but has not received a vote in the Democratic-controlled House.

Presumably, President Donald Trump would oppose this bill. After President Obama’s Interior Secretary Sally Jewell changed the name of Alaska’s Mount McKinley to Mount Denali, reverting to the summit’s original name in the native language Koyukon, Trump tweeted, “Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!” referring to the namesake President William McKinley hailing from Ohio.

(However, Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ultimately kept the name Denali at the request of Alaska’s two U.S. senators.)

from the newsletter of the Congressional analytical site: “The GovTrack” < https://govtrackinsider.com/deb-haaland-is-joe-bidens-nominee-for-secretary-of-the-interior-how-has-she-voted-on-interior-37109a219769 >

Deb Haaland is Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior;
How has she voted on Interior issues in Congress?

GovTrack.us

Dec 28 · 7 min read — Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM1)

A member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM1) has been nominated as the first-ever Native American Cabinet secretary. The first-term congresswoman, previously chair of the New Mexico Democratic Party, currently serves as Vice Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, including as Chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands.

The $12.6 billion department she is poised to run, subject to Senate confirmation, controls about one-fifth of all U.S. land. It also houses such bureaus as the National Parks Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

How has Rep. Haaland voted in Congress on such issues, and what legislation has she introduced or cosponsored on these subjects?

Works across the aisle

In 2019, among all House freshmen, Rep. Haaland introduced the most bills with at least one bipartisan cosponsor, with 13. (Reps. Anthony Brindisi [D-NY22] and Josh Harder [D-CA10] tied for second place, with 12 each.)

Curiously, that bipartisan outreach did not apply nearly as much in the opposite direction, when she was cosponsoring other legislators’ bills. Among all representatives, freshmen or otherwise, her rate of cosponsoring bills introduced by members across the aisle ranked 11th-least.

In 2019, she introduced more House bills that attracted a Senate companion than any other House member, freshman or otherwise, with 15. (Reps. Judy Chu [D-CA27] and Rosa DeLauro [D-CT3] tied for second place, with 14 each.) This reflects Haaland’s ability to work well with the upper chamber, possibly fortelling a relatively uncontroversial confirmation vote in January.

Three bills enacted

Rep. Haaland was the lead sponsor of three bills that were enacted into law so far during her first term. That’s a pretty good number for any member of Congress during these polarized times, but especially for a first-term representative who doesn’t serve in an official leadership role. All three laws dealt with Native American policy, which Haaland would also deal with at Interior.

Not Invisible Act

Native American rates of murder, rape, and violent crime are all higher than the national averages. The Not Invisible Act creates a new position within the Interior Department dealing specifically with murder, trafficking, and missing Native Americans, and forms a new joint advisory committee between the Interior and Justice Departments on those issues.

“Every woman deserves to feel safe, but women in Native communities are going missing without a trace,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “The congressional members of federally recognized tribes are stepping up for our communities by working to set up an advisory board that is specifically focused on finding solutions to address this silent crisis,” referring to the bill being cosponsored by Native American Reps. Tom Cole (R-OK4), Sharice Davids (D-KS3), and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK2).

The Senate passed it by voice vote on March 11, then the House followed suit on September 21, and President Trump signed it into law on October 10, 2020.

PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act

Since 1975, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act has allowed Native American tribes to self-govern through many programs and services that were previously administered federally. The PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act, which stands for Practical Reforms and Other Goals to Reinforce the Effectiveness of Self-Governance and Self-Determination, makes some technical and bureaucratic tweaks and reforms to further expand tribes’ right to self-governance.

“Self-governance has been extraordinarily beneficial for Tribes to manage successful programs with the flexibility to utilize federal funds in a way that best fits the needs of their communities. Tribes are their own best stewards,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “However, serious gaps continue to exist that hinder the full exercise of Tribal self-governance.”

The Senate passed it by voice vote on June 27, 2019; the House did the same on September 21, 2020; and President Trump signed it into law on October 21, 2020.

Native American Business Incubators Program Act

Native Americans have the highest poverty rate of any racial group. The Native American Business Incubators Program Act creates a $5 million annual grant program within the Interior Department for tribal businesses, educational institutions, or other organizations.

When I was a young single mom trying to make ends meet, I started and ran a salsa company. That experience could have been so different if there was more access to resources,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “This bill will make sure future entrepreneurs in Indian Country can build businesses and break cycles of poverty in our communities.”

The Senate passed it by voice vote on June 27, 2019; the House did the same on September 21, 2020; and President Trump signed it into law on October 20, 2020.
Three bills introduced

Rep. Haaland has also introduced a number of bills dealing with issues she would tackle at the Interior Department. Here are three of them.

ANTIQUITIES Act

In December 2017, President Trump completed the largest rollback of national monument designations in U.S. history, reducing the size of the Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — both in Utah — by a cumulative 2 million acres.

A month into her congressional tenure, the very first bill Rep. Haaland ever introduced was the ANTIQUITIES Act, which stands for “America’s Natural Treasures of Immeasurable Quality Unite, Inspire, and Together Improve the Economies of States.” The bill would clarify that Congress must officially declare any national monuments. It would also re-expand Bears Ears to 1.9 million acres and designate about 250,000 acres in Rep. Haaland’s home state of New Mexico as federally protected.

The name is a deliberate homage to the original Antiquities Act of 1906, which originally allowed the president to declare national monuments.

“We love our public lands, we love our open spaces, and we care about the future we’re going to leave for our children, but this administration has been illegally attacking our nation’s treasures so it can sell them off to oil companies and developers,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “As my first piece of legislation this bill expands on my efforts to fight climate change by protecting land from extraction, honor our sacred sites, and ensure our beautiful places are here for future generations. Our public lands are not for sale.”

Republicans contend not only that President Trump had the power to recede or rescind the monuments if he chose, but also that the bill may be unconstitutional. In the 1920 Supreme Court case Cameron v. United States, the Court unanimously upheld that President Theodore Roosevelt had the right to declare the Grand Canyon a national monument.

Despite receiving 113 cosponsors, all Democrats, the bill never received a vote in the Democratic-controlled House.

Climate Stewardship Act

From 1933 to 1942, during the Great Depression, the federal government ran the program Civilian Conservation Corps, employing hundreds of thousands of people to plant more than three billion trees and construct trails in more than 800 parks.

The Climate Stewardship Act would resurrect this program under the new name Stewardship Corps. The 84-page bill also contains provisions restoring 2+ million acres of coastal wetlands and investing in renewable energy.

“Climate change is an immediate threat our communities face that calls for bold solutions. However, deforestation and some current agricultural practices are making global warming worse,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. The bill would “incentivize farming practices that reduce emissions and promote reforestation. These steps are important to reversing climate change impacts that threaten the health and safety of our communities and our planet.”

The bill has attracted 10 cosponsors, all Democrats, but has not received a vote in the Democratic-controlled House.

Reconciliation in Place Names Act

Part of the Interior Department, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names designates the official names of lands, mountains, rivers, and other geographic features. A 2015 study estimated there may be as many as 1,441 domestic geographic features which had potentially offensive official names, such as Dead Negro Spring.

The Reconciliation in Place Names Act would create a new 16-member Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names to advise the board. This committee would consist of four Native American tribe members, four people with expertise in civil rights or race relations, four people with expertise in anthropology or cultural studies, one person representing a tribal organization, with the last three intended to represent the general public at large.

“All visitors to public lands deserve to feel welcome and comfortable while enjoying all that nature has to offer them. However, offensive or racist place names are restricting access and prevent many from feeling welcome on lands that belong to all of us,” Rep. Haaland said in a press release. “It’s past time to change the offensive names of public lands, especially with input from groups who have been discriminated against.”

The bill has attracted 15 cosponsors, all Democrats, but has not received a vote in the Democratic-controlled House.

Presumably, President Donald Trump would oppose this bill. After President Obama’s Interior Secretary Sally Jewell changed the name of Alaska’s Mount McKinley to Mount Denali, reverting to the summit’s original name in the native language Koyukon, Trump tweeted, “Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!” referring to the namesake President William McKinley hailing from Ohio.

(However, Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ultimately kept the name Denali at the request of Alaska’s two U.S. senators.)

From NASA https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147643/a-destructive-abundance?src=nha

A Destructive Abundance

2020

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season will go down in history as a season of superlatives: the most named storms observed in a year (30); the most storms to make landfall in the continental United States (12); the most to hit Louisiana (5); and the most storms to form in September (10). The 2020 season was supercharged, and not just in the raw numbers.

“What really blew me away were the explosive intensification events,” said Jim Kossin, an atmospheric scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “For instance, Hurricane Eta’s wind speeds increased around 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour in one day. There’s rapid intensification, and then there’s really rapid intensification, which is what we saw often this year.”

For the past few decades, hurricanes have been rapidly intensifying more often, and their forward motion has been stalling more. 2020 continued both trends. A record-tying nine storms rapidly intensified, defined as wind speeds increasing at least 35 miles (56 kilometers) per hour within 24 hours. Two named storms stalled; one (Sally) moved at just 2 miles per hour for a period—slower than a walking pace.

The map above shows the tracks of all 30 Atlantic storms in 2020, highlighting a few of the named storms. Three of them—Eta, Iota, and Delta—saw their winds intensify by at least 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour in 24 hours. The data for the map come from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), the official archive used by the World Meteorological Organization.

During the 2020 season, nearly every mile of the U.S. Atlantic coast from Texas to Maine was under a tropical storm watch or warning at some point. It also marked the fifth year in a row with above-average hurricane activity.

The maps below show historical storm tracks in the Atlantic basin, with each hexagon having a 100-kilometer (60-mile) diameter. The map on the left shows the total number of storms that crossed through each 100-kilometer parcel from 1851 to 2020. The map on the right shows the average number of storms that passed through each hexagon between 1950 and 2000. While the yearly average frequency barely approached one storm for any given parcel from 1950-2000, the active season of 2020 brought as many as four storms to some of these areas.

1851 – 2020

“This year, the U.S. got hit a lot and the storms did a lot of damage, but the damage certainly could have been worse had the storms tracked slightly differently,” said Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University. “For Hurricane Laura, the storm surge could have devastated Lake Charles if the storm had tracked 20 miles farther west.”

Category 4 Hurricane Laura was the strongest to make landfall in the U.S. this season, bringing sustained winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour and storm surges ranging from 9 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters). It dropped 5 to 10 inches of rain across a swath of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas.

In Central America, category 4 hurricanes Eta and Iota made landfall within two weeks of one another in the same part of Nicaragua. Never have two Atlantic hurricanes hit the same area with such strength so close in time.

“Eta stood out as one of the most catastrophic storms of the season, as it stalled and rapidly intensified at the same time,” said Tim Hall, a hurricane researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “It also occurred in November, well after the season typically peaks.”

September 14, 2020 JPEG

The image above shows a wide view of six storms on September 14, 2020. The data show brightness temperature of the cloud tops (infrared band 13) and were acquired on September 14 by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16. GOES-16 is operated by NOAA; NASA develops and launches the GOES series of satellites.

A combination of environmental factors made the Atlantic basin favorable for storm development this year. Sea surface temperatures were abnormally warm at the beginning of the season—which led to a slew of early storms—and became warmer throughout the season. By August, a very active monsoon pattern took hold over northwestern Africa and helped produce the sort of robust atmospheric waves that can develop into storms. A moderate to strong La Niña also developed in the eastern Pacific Ocean and reduced the wind shear that can hinder hurricane formation and intensification across the tropical Atlantic.

Local atmospheric and oceanic conditions also helped intensify individual hurricanes, Klotzbach noted. Weak easterly trade winds prevented upwelling (the process of bringing deeper, colder water to the ocean surface) in the Caribbean, allowing a deep pool of extremely warm water to develop. This provided potent fuel for rapidly intensifying storms like Eta and Iota.

Though recent research suggests that warming seas may heighten hurricane activity in the future, the abundance of storms this year is not itself a signal of future storm trends. “There’s no observed trend globally on the frequency of storms. Some years and some ocean basins have more and then less,” said Hall. “But if you already have a hurricane formed, we have found that global warming signals are increasing a storm’s likelihood to stall, intensify into a major hurricane, and drop more rain.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using GOES 16 data from NOAA and the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS). Story by Kasha Patel.

References & Resources

Bhatia, K. T. et al. (2019) Recent increases in tropical cyclone intensification rates. Nature Communications, 10 (635).
Colorado State University Tropical Weather & Climate Research (2020, November 30) Summary of 2020 Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity and Verification of Authors’ Seasonal and Two-Week Forecasts. Accessed December 9, 2020.
Hall, T. et al. (2020) US Tropical Cyclone Activity in the 2030s Based on Projected Changes in Tropical Sea-Surface Temperature. Journal of Climate.
National Hurricane Center (2020, December 1) Monthly Atlantic Tropical Weather Summary. Accessed December 9, 2020.
NOAA (2020, November 24) Record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season draws to an end. Accessed December 9, 2020.
Yale Climate Connections (2020, December 1) A look back at the horrific 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. Accessed December 9, 2020.