The Senate will hold a pro forma session today. The House is in recess.

Strengthening Safety Cultures in Oil and Gas Operations in the Arctic. Fran Ulmer, Chair of the US Arctic Research Commission, addressed the "PAME Health Safety and Environmental (HSE) Management Systems for Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Operations" workshop held on Sunday, Sept.16th, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The goal of the workshop was to inform the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) HSE project team about strengthening safety cultures in oil and gas operations in the Arctic. As a presidentially-appointed member of the National BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Commission, Ulmer provided a summary of the recommendations from the Commission's report and provided suggestions regarding the opportunities for improvements in risk management. This workshop was convened in support of the PAME 2011-2013 work plan and is being held back-to-back with the Arctic Ocean Review (AOR) Workshop (Sept. 17-18) and the PAME II-2012 Working Group meeting (Sept. 18-20). 
GOP Pushes Back on Sequester. Republicans pushed back  

Friday after the White House blamed the GOP for blocking "balanced" alternatives that would raise taxes on the wealthy as a way to avoid automatic budget cuts set to take effect Jan. 2. The administration today released a report - which was required by law and pushed by Republicans - that said the sequester would have "devastating impacts" on military and non-military programs. "This report confirms that the president's 'sequester' is a serious threat to our national security and must be replaced," Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. Roll Call  

White House Details 'Deeply Destructive' Cuts Under Sequester. A White House report on the impact of automatic spending cuts set to begin in January concludes that the sequester would be "deeply destructive" to national security, domestic investments and core government functions. While the long-awaited report provides detailed information, it does not analyze how the sequester would affect federal programs, projects and activities as required by a law enacted last month (PL 112-155). The report demanded by Congress amid warnings about the impact of the looming cuts, particularly on defense, outlines some $109 billion in reductions and urges lawmakers to find a way to stave off the automatic reductions triggered by last year's debt limit agreement. Congressional Quaterly

Shell to Forgo Arctic Exploratory Drilling Until 2013. Shell will not conduct exploratory drilling in the Arctic this summer, the company said late on Sunday, after a containment dome was damaged during a final test of the system. "In order to lay a strong foundation for operations in 2013, we will forgo drilling into hydrocarbon zones this year," Shell spokeswoman Kelly op de Weegh said in an email. "Instead, we will begin as many wells, known as 'top holes,' as time remaining in this season allows." While the company has received permits to begin preliminary work in the Arctic, it has been struggling to get its oil spill response barge, called Arctic Challenger, certified in order to get final drilling permits for the controversial project. The company successfully completed a series of tests for the containment system in the last several days, but during a final test, the containment dome abroad the Arctic Challenger was damaged, op de Weegh said. Government Executive

Canadian Port Sess Increased Shipping Traffic as Arctic Melts. On an otherwise ordinary Monday in early August, a ship built in Asia, traveling from Europe and bound for Africa sidled up to the berths of the port in the northern town of Churchill, in the Canadian province of Manitoba, ready to be loaded with Canadian grain. After filling the hull with prairie wheat, the MV Puffin was off, bound for the Nigerian port of Lagos with 42,779 cubic metres of cargo. The Puffin was the port's first customer this shipping season. But if shifting global trade winds are any indication, a lot more vessels will follow in its wake. When Sir John Franklin set out to find the elusive Northwest Passage in 1845, the voyage that is now the focus of a Parks Canada search was a dream that cost him and his crew their lives. Now, pursuit of that passage to cross between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is seeing renewed interest as Arctic ice recedes to record lows. Alaska Dispatch 

Canada's Arctic Territory Heats Up: Kent: As the world runs out of resources and the ice retreats, Canada's sprawling Arctic territory is attracting interest from a host of different countries. Two mighty ocean-going vessels: one Chinese and the other registered in the Netherlands. Both symbolic players in the world's coming struggle for food, water, right of shipping transit and access to deep ocean resources. Each combines to form a single message for Canada as it faces renewed challenges to its Arctic sovereignty. First the Dutch ship. As you read this, the giant fishing trawler FV Margiris is ready to drop its nets in the wild vastness of the Southern Ocean. The Toronto Sun 

Japan Gifts US $6 Million Toward Debris Cleanup. At a recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in eastern Russia, Japan announced it would be sending $6 million to North America to assist the U.S. and Canada address tsunami debris concerns on the Pacific Coast. This is in response to a growing concern about marine debris from Japan's devastating March 2011 tsunami, which is beginning to show up on coastlines around the Pacific - including Alaska. Sen. Mark Begich called the gift a welcome contribution and a signal that a continued financial and collaborative effort by U.S. officials is needed in order to deal with the mounting debris issue. The Arctic Sounder 

[Canadian] Scientists Protest Federal Cutbacks to Environmental Monitoring. A leading Canadian climate scientist today slammed the search for the long-lost 1845 Franklin Expedition as a veiled front for future oil and gas extraction in the high Arctic. Andrew Weaver, a professor in the University of Victoria school of earth and ocean sciences, called the search for the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror a "joke" during an off-the-cuff speech during a noontime rally in downtown Victoria. "The Franklin Expedition is using tax dollars to seismically survey the ocean bottom for future oil and gas exploration. That has nothing to do with science," Weaver said. "It's all about oil and gas exploration. They are mapping out the floor." Peninsula News Review