Obama to Tap New Budget Director. President Barack Obama is expected early Monday to announce his intention to nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to a White House official. Burwell, if confirmed, would replace Jacob J. Lew, who served as the White House budget director before being confirmed and sworn in as Treasury secretary last week. Her nomination had been rumored, but even as late as last week, OMB officials declined to confirm that Burwell was under consideration. Roll Call

3 Scenarios for Sequester. President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are dug in on the sequester, and there are no signs of a quick fix to the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that both sides say they disdain. That could certainly change after a few bad months of economic numbers or a public outcry. But until average Americans feel the cuts, neither side looks willing to budge on the key issue of revenues without some game-changing factor. And neither party is inclined to risk a government shutdown on sequester politics. Politico 

Obama Nominates Energy, EPA Heads. President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and MIT professor Ernest J. Moniz to serve as Energy secretary during his second term. "They're going to be making sure that we're investing in American energy, that we're doing everything that we can to combat the threat of climate change, that we're going to be creating jobs and economic opportunity in the first place," Obama said in introducing his nominees at a White House news conference. "They are going to be a great team. And these are some of my top priorities going forward." Roll Call

Obama Issues Order Implementing Sequester. In the end, the long-feared sequester of federal funds came swiftly and quietly. On Friday evening, President Obama issued an order putting sequestration into effect. He was required by law to do so by the end of the day in the absence of a congressional agreement to stop the $85 billion in across-the-board-cuts. Government Executive

House to Vote on 2013 Appropriations Next Week. The U.S. House next week will vote on a spending bill that would fund the military for the remainder of fiscal 2013, according to House Armed Services Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry. The Texas Republican told reporters Friday that the chamber will take up a 2013 defense appropriations bill that would give the Pentagon some fiscal maneuverability. The department, like the rest of the federal government, is funded under a continuing resolution (CR) that keeps spending at fiscal 2012 levels, but defense officials are unable to fund certain programs and accounts due to restrictions stemming from a CR. Federal Times

Alaska Native Tribal Leaders Voice Concerns about House Bills in Juneau. A group of Inupiat tribal leaders traveled to Juneau recently to meet with state lawmakers concerning several proposed pieces of legislation that the group alleges would limit the amount of participation tribal members would have in resource development projects in the state. Lillian Stone, a school teacher from Anaktuvuk Pass; Earl Kingik, of Point Hope; Willard Neakok, president of the Point Lay Tribal Council; and Rosemary Ahtuangaruak of Barrow all visited the state's capital to express their concern about several bills currently moving through the House. The proposed legislation would "roll back public notice and participation in resource development projects" and "could lock Inupiat communities out of decision-making on major projects such as oil and gas development in Arctic near-shore waters, construction of a pipeline across the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the proposed road to Umiat, which would provide access for oil and gas development and exploration that would harm caribou and subsistence activities," wrote Mark Glyde, senior program director of Resource Media, which promoted the group's activity. Alaska Dispatch

Appeals Court Ruling Determines Polar Bears Will Retain 'Threatened' Listing. A federal court of appeals ruled Friday that polar bears will remain listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, despite a legal objection brought by the State of Alaska. Though the bears are not currently endangered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined in May 2008 that polar bears should be listed as endangered on the basis of receding sea ice, an important part of the bears' habitat. The ruling is significant because it marks the first time that an animal will earn protection under the Endangered Species Act based solely on the potential harm caused by climate change. Polar bears can occasionally swim long distances during the summer months in an attempt to reach land from their winter home on the ice. In 2012, the levels of sea ice in the Arctic reached new all-time lows, just five years after the previous record low occurred.  Alaska Dispatch

NSF Inspector General, House Appropriators to Discuss Problems with Grant Management. House appropriators will hear about challenges the National Science Foundation faces in ensuring taxpayer dollars are well-spent at an oversight hearing Wednesday. NSF hands out more than 11,000 grants totaling about $7 billion each year and manages big project contracts totaling nearly $11 billion. E&E News

Approps Panel Dives Into Fiscal 2014 Budget for Agency's Science Research. A panel of the House Appropriations Committee tomorrow will examine the Energy Department's Office of Science fiscal 2014 budget, even as questions persist about the impact of mandatory spending cuts under sequestration triggered last week. The Office of Science is the lead federal agency for fundamental scientific research for energy and the largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences. The program helps support about 25,000 researchers at about 300 U.S. colleges and the national laboratories. The Office of Science is made up of 10 programs, including advanced scientific computing, basic energy sciences, biological and environmental research, fusion energy sciences, high-energy physics, nuclear physics, workforce development, science laboratories infrastructure, safeguards, and security and science program direction. E&E News

Science Subpanel Turns Its Attention to Global Warming Policy. A House panel whose leaders are skeptical of the science of man-made climate change will wade into the issue Wednesday, when it holds a hearing titled "policy-relevant climate issues in context." The hearing will be the first held this Congress by the Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Environment that will focus primarily on climate change. E&E News

Agencies Begin Making Across-the-Board Cuts. With Congress unable to agree on a deficit-reduction deal, federal agencies are beginning to implement the blunt, across-the-board spending cuts that took effect Friday night. To contribute to the total $85 billion reduction known as "sequestration," virtually every domestic spending account is seeing its fiscal 2013 budget reduced by about 5 percent. But those cuts are actually taking about a 9 percent bite from remaining unspent funds, because the cuts are taking effect with just seven months left in the fiscal year, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. E&E News

Jewell to be Grilled on Wide Range of Energy, Wildlife Challenges. Sally Jewell's first political test as President Obama's nominee for Interior secretary comes Thursday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where she will be grilled on how she plans to run the $12 billion agency that controls one-fifth of the U.S. landmass and nearly all of its oceans. Jewell, 56, has had less than a month to cram for what could be a grueling and lengthy confirmation hearing, her first step toward replacing outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. There's no shortage of questions senators may ask about balancing conservation and development on federal lands -- including a pending decision on whether to allow a road through an Alaska wildlife refuge, an issue over which Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has threatened to block Jewell's confirmation. E&E News

US and Russia Team Up in Bid to Aid Polar Bears. With relations between Russia and the United States increasingly frosty because of entrenched disagreements over Syria, child adoptions, missile systems and other issues, the two countries have quietly joined forces to help polar bears. Russia and the United States, two of the five countries where polar bears live, are now the main allies pushing for greater protection for the bears under a global treaty on endangered species, which is being reviewed this week at a conference in Bangkok. New York Times

Alaska Hair Mercury Testing Shows Low Level of Concern. The latest update of the state's hair mercury testing program of Alaska women of childbearing age indicates that hair mercury levels are below a level of concern. The state Section of Epidemiology began testing for the presence of mercury in hair in 2002. Through 2012, the state has analyzed the hair samples of 312 pregnant and 685 non-pregnant women of childbearing age from 127 Alaska communities, according to a recent notice from the Section of Epidemiology, which is a part of the state Department of Health and Social Services. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 

Stedman to Tout Arctic at Energy Council: Sitka Senator Sharing Group This Year. The 90-day legislative session is now more than halfway done, and as usual, the Alaska State Legislature is coming up for air during the coming week as many of its members leave town. The main event of the week is the Energy Council's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., which is drawing at least one-third of the state's legislators - including Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, who is chairman of the Energy Council this year. Juneau Empire

Normative Science: It is easy-and wrong-for scientists to become stealth policy advocates. Scientific information is important in many policy debates in the Pacific Northwest (salmon; wildfire severity; human activities and climate; genetically modified organisms; water scarcity). Science is essential in such policy debates, but I am concerned that policy-biased science is increasingly common. Science should be objective and based on the best information available. Too often, however, scientific information presented to the public and decision-makers is infused with hidden policy preferences. Such science is termed normative, and it is a corruption of the practice of good science. Normative science is defined as "information that is developed, presented or interpreted based on an assumed, usually unstated, preference for a particular policy choice." Oregon State

Papp Calls for Resilience in Annual Coast Guard Address. The Coast Guard has commissioned its fourth Fast Response Cutter, will christen its fourth National Security Cutter in October and will soon announce three finalists for the Offshore Patrol Cutter procurement, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp said Feb. 27 during his annual state of the service address. The Coast Guard is in its second decade of an ongoing fleet recapitalization effort; some of the ships the NRCs will replace will turn 50 starting next year, Papp noted during his address. In addition, an overhaul of the heavy icebreaker USCGC Polar Star is complete; in a commandant's situation report. Papp says the icebreaker will undertake its first mission to Antarctica since 2006. Fierce Homeland Security

NOAA Assumes Full Operational Responsibilities of Environmental Satellite. A recent major milestone to develop the next-generation of polar-orbiting satellites was reached when operational control of America's newest environmental satellite was transitioned to NOAA. These satellites are critical to providing advanced warning for severe weather including tornado outbreaks, heavy snowfall, hurricanes, heat waves, floods, and wildfires. Data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite will continue to strengthen NOAA's ability to predict severe weather days in advance. Suomi NPP data are also used to generate dozens of environmental data products, including measurements of clouds, vegetation, ocean color, and land and sea surface temperatures. NOAA

Study: Barents Sea Could be a new Norwegian oil and gas province. Norway may be in for an even bigger economic boom after a new survey in the previously disputed area of the Barents Sea uncovered significant gas and oil, reports the Barents Observer. Norway's Oil and Energy Minister Ola Borten Moe is quoted in the report as saying that the country's Arctic Finnmark Region is poised as "Norway's next oil province." Alaska Dispatch 

No formal legislative action was taken on Arctic legislation yesterday.