House Conservatives Do Not Want Decisions Made in Lame-Duck. The list of major items that Congress must confront in a lame-duck session is getting lengthy, but a few House conservatives say lawmakers should not return to Washington at all after the November elections. With the House and Senate likely to close up the pre-election shop next week, action on expiring tax rates and subsidies, looming spending cuts, Medicare reimbursement rates and a cash-strapped Postal Service must wait until an abbreviated post-election session in November and December. The Hill  

Senate's Gang of Eight Eyes a More Ambitious Deficit Reduction Plan. The Senate's Gang of Eight is aiming higher, with some members of the bipartisan group now discussing a plan that would reduce deficit spending by $1 trillion more than their initial goal. With the hope of offering a comprehensive proposal for consideration during a post-election session, the senators are trying to package revenue increases with structural changes in entitlements, They are also looking at ways to delay the automatic spending cuts due to start in 2013. One idea is to allow scaled back cuts to occur, with an agreement that larger savings will be worked out next year. Congressional Quarterly

Russia Plans to Construct Largest Nuclear-Powered Icebreaker Ever. Earth already has plenty of nuclear-powered things; however Russia is eager to add to the list. Alaska's eastern (and northern) neighbor plans to build the largest nuclear-powered icebreaker in the world. According to BBC news, the new vessel is "meant to be more efficient at breaking ice" and able to navigate the profoundly vast waters of the Northern Sea Route, as well as "narrower Siberian river" channels. Technically, Russia has already built the largest nuclear-powered icebreaker in the world several times over because it's the only country in the world with a nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet. But the country believes that an even larger, more powerful craft may attract the attention of foreign commercial shippers. Mathew Willis of the defense think tank Rusi told the BBC that the Northern Sea Route "is the best channel in the Arctic." Wilis added that any northern shipping "is probably going to go into the Russian Arctic, so the Russians are trying to make it (the Northern Sea Route) more attractive to ships" by offering a larger more efficient icebreaker. Alaska Dispatch  

Environmental Group Sues for Federal Protection of Ice Seals. Environmentalists sued the Obama administration on Wednesday seeking federal safeguards for seals that rely on vanishing Arctic sea ice and accusing the government of dragging its feet in listing the marine mammals under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, saying the National Marine Fisheries Service has illegally delayed listings for the ringed seal and the bearded seal. The Chicago Tribune  

Arctic Council Implement SAR Live Exercise. A four-day live exercise, in which Iceland will take part, is currently underway on and around the coast of East Greenland as part of the Arctic Council agreement on Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) in the Arctic. According to the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Icelandic Coast Guard is responsible for Iceland's participation in the exercise but the Civil Protection, ICE-SAR, the Icelandic Red Cross and Icesavia are also taking part. Iceland Review

The EU and the Arctic: A never ending story. The European Commission's new outline for an EU Arctic policy, released at the end of June, goes a long way in showing how the EU wishes to be perceived as a serious and balanced Arctic actor. Other parts of the EU-system, however, have taken a different approach throughout the summer months. Using the kind of simplified Arctic-rhetoric that has caused many problems for the EU in the past, some Members of the European Parliament have yet again called for an Arctic drilling moratorium and questioned the region's governance structures. The ongoing oil and gas debate in the European Parliament highlights how the EU is not, at least yet, a coherent actor on this issue, and is still in the early stages of developing its own comprehensive Arctic Policy. In a summer when Shell started drilling in the Chukchi Sea, Greenpeace activists hijacked a rig in Russia, and a shifting oil rig in the Barents Sea caused alarm in Norway, Arctic oil and gas has most definitely been on the agenda, both in and outside of the Arctic. Certain members of the European Parliament have consequently used the Commission's proposal on new safety rules for offshore oil and gas as an opportunity to address issues concerning such activities. As before, however, some of the proposals in the Parliament highlight a greater desire to be seen doing something about the Arctic rather than actually understanding the matter at hand. The Arctic Institute 

Warming Arctic Climate May Mean Trees for Nunavut in 100 Years: Fossil Forest holds clue to future climate. A Université de Montreal graduate student studying a fossilized forest on Nunavut's Bylot Island says the climate conditions that existed there 2.5 million years ago are similar to what scientists predict will exist again in a hundred years. In other words, what goes around, comes around: it's possible that small trees, similar to the willow, pine and spruce that now grow at the treeline near James Bay in Quebec, might one day grow again in the High Arctic. Nunatsiaq Online

Tiny Arctic Crustaceans May be Riding The Wave of Climate Change. With sea ice levels at record lows and shorelines receding, scientists are concerned about the adaptability of animals to global climate change. But new research suggests one tiny crustacean is riding the waves of climate change. Live Science reports that tiny, flea-like Apherusa glacialis that dwells on the underside of sea ice may already be adapting to iceless summer days. When Norwegian marine biologist Jørgen Berge of the University Centre in Svalbard and his research team dragged up the tiny creatures from deep in the Arctic Ocean in January, they found about half of the creatures to be egg-bearing females. Finding so many females at such deep depths was odd; they began to wonder why. Alaska Dispatch 

Climate Changes Makes the Arctic a Strange Kettle of Fish. Decisions on managing fish stocks in the Arctic should be based on fact and not idealism, maintains University of Hull fisheries expert, Dr Magnus Johnson. Speaking at the "The Future of the High North and the Challenges for Maritime Governance" conference, being held this week (September 13-14) at the University of Hull, Dr Johnson, of the University of Hull's Centre for Environmental and Marine Sciences, will claim that over-regulation risks endangering the livelihood of indigenous people in the region. FISHUpdate