Advanced Workshop on Oil Spills In Sea Ice: Past, Present and Future 

September 20-23, 2011. A technical workshop, organized by Dr. Peter Wadhams, on the physical problems associated with oil spills and blowouts in sea ice will be held at the Istituto Geografico Polare "Silvio Zavatti," Fermo, Italy. Scientists, engineers and policy makers are invited to address the questions of how oil is emitted from a blowout or spill, how the oil and gas are incorporated in the under-ice surface, how the oil layer evolves, how the oil is transported by the ice, and how and where eventual release occurs. The aim is to incorporate the experience of those scientists who worked in this field in the 1970s-1990s, when large-scale field experiments involving oil release were possible, and to relate this to the needs of present researchers who are seeking solutions to the problem of a sustainable Arctic oil spill management system. Registration forms are available here.

Leaders Regroup After Loss on CR. Congressional leaders are still seeking a way to keep the government running past the end of next week - and replenish dwindling disaster aid accounts - after a conservative revolt scuttled a stopgap bill backed by House Republican leadership. With the clock ticking before a potential government shutdown at the end of next week, and Congress scheduled to recess on Friday, leaders face tough choices. Once again, the two parties are locked in a showdown over spending, with Republicans demanding cutbacks and offsets for disaster aid and Democrats opposing those moves. Congressional Quarterly

Senate Committee Approves Authorization of Homeland Security Programs. A Senate panel on Wednesday endorsed an authorization bill for the Homeland Security Department for the first time since the agency's 2003 founding, approving the legislation by a wide margin. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee backed the bill, 12-5, one week after the first half of the bill's markup. In addition to authorizing various DHS programs, the amended measure would give Border Patrol agents greater access to federal lands along the Southwest border. Rand Paul, R-Ky., offered an amendment that would require the department to establish guidelines to protect civil liberties when countering homegrown extremism, sparking a contentious debate about whether to specify efforts to combat "Islamist terrorism" as the agency's priority. Congressional Quarterly

Federal Agency Awards Contract for Sea Ice Study. The federal agency that oversees offshore petroleum drilling says it has awarded a contract of nearly a half-million dollars for a technical study of how Arctic sea ice fractures, breaks and flows in open waters. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement awarded the $499,981 to Dartmouth College for researchers at the Hanover, N.H., school's Thayer School of Engineering. Boston Globe

Iceland and China: Hands Off Our Wilderness. An Ambitious Chinese Entrepreneur Spooks Wary Icelanders. The polyglots of Iceland should be able to cope with the name Huang Nubo. But since the wealthy chairman of Zhongkun, a property-development company, made his bid for a vast plot of land, making up 0.3% of the island's land mass, to build a hotel development, he has become known simply as Kinverjinn (the Chinaman). For some, Mr Huang is just the type of investor the troubled Icelandic economy needs as it fights its way up from the 2008 slump. Others dislike the prospect of a foreigner buying up a huge amount of land that happens to be near several of Iceland's most remarkable natural sites. Ogmundur Jonasson, the interior minister, whose job it will be to approve the deal, spoke for many when he said that the Chinese were "buying up the world". The Economist 

Policies on Carbon Emissions Must be Similar in U.S., Canada: Ambassador. Finding a way to limit carbon emissions will be a major issue for Canada-U.S. relations, and the two countries can't be too far apart in their policies, U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson says. Putting a price on carbon is one way to slow down greenhouse gas emissions, but the price set by either country could influence where investment decisions are made, Jacobson told The Journal's editorial board Wednesday. It's important that national policies do not give one country a competitive advantage, he said, "so people won't make economic decisions based on the differences. You don't want to have a race to the bottom." Edmonton Journal

More Interior Scientists Are Taking Heat. Scores of scientists work for the Interior Department on issues involving birds and bees, foxes and foxgloves, and all manner of other species and their habitats. But in the eyes of the general public they tend to be virtually anonymous, at best names in italics at the end of a Federal Register notice. Nonetheless, a spotlight has been trained recently on a few department employees: some National Park Service scientists at Point Reyes National Seashore on California's northern coast, and an Arctic wildlife biologist working for the Anchorage office of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. And this week, two Interior fish biologists were excoriated as deceitful zealots in an unusual diatribe by a federal judge, Oliver W. Wanger. New York Times 

Environment Canada Defends Ozone Monitoring Cuts. Environment Canada is admitting that a large chunk of its ozone-monitoring program is being cut, but insists that its capacity to measure the earth's protective layer of gas won't be hurt. The department has two separate technologies that measure ozone, but budget cuts will mean that the two separate networks won't be maintained, explained Karen Dodds, assistant deputy minister of the science and technology branch. CBC News

Arkhangelsk Arctic Forum, September 21-24, 2011. Hosted by the Russian Geographic Society, the forum will host discussion on Arctic navigation, development of the Northern Sea Route, railway extensions, and construction of a deep-water port in Arkhangelsk.