Today's Events 

The Senate will consider legislation to reauthorize Army Corps of Engineers water project. The House will hold a pro forma session. 

 

White House Outlines New Policy for Protecting, Drilling in Arctic. The Obama administration on Friday released a national strategy for the Arctic in advance of Secretary of State John Kerry's trip next week to Sweden to attend a conference of eight polar nations. In the policy, the White House outlines its approach to some key Arctic issues, even as it acknowledges that there are conflicting - and even contradictory - goals and challenges as rapidly melting sea ice makes the region more accessible. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as other regions of the Earth. Anchorage Daily News 

 

US Unveils Arctic Strategy, But Is It Keeping Pace with Other Countries? The priorities in the 13-page document include beefing up defense and other national security activities in the region, as well as the infrastructure to support them; working to safeguard the region's environment; and working with other Arctic nations one-on-one and through multi-country organizations, such as the Arctic Council, to manage activities in the region in ways that reduce the potential for conflict. In addition, the strategy calls for a push for ratification of the UN's Law of the Sea Treaty, which failed to clear the Senate last year. The Christian Science Monitor 

 

Congressional Working Group to Examine Endangered Species Act. The US House Committee on Natural Resources has formed a working group to examine the Endangered Species Act.  Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and chair of the committee, and Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., co-chair of the Western Caucus, will lead the working group, according to a press release from the working group. The group will sponsor forums and hearings in the coming year, seeking input on ways the law can be updated and ways it is working well. The act was last reauthorized in 1988. Capitol Press 

 

Arctic Strategy: White House Looks Toward Last Frontier But Will Investment Follow? Hours after the White House announced it had signed the National Strategy for the Arctic Region, Alaskans began to put into perspective what the high-level event really means for the Last Frontier.  Many of Alaska's stakeholders were briefed early in the day during a phone call with the White House. The strategy is the U.S. version of similar commitments made by Canada, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Russia, and Sweden. Alaska Dispatch 

 

Aglukkaq Promises 'Different Perspective' As Chair of Northern Body. The huge, white polar bear - the Arctic's undisputed top predator - doesn't seem at all out of place in Leona Aglukkaq's spacious ministerial office high above the river in Ottawa's gothic-revival Confederation Building. Ms. Aglukkaq, an Inuk, is very proud of it - and prouder still of her nephew, who shot the big bear when he was only 11. It was the boy's first polar bear kill and he gave the hide, its noble head still attached, to his aunt, whose heart is still in Gjoa Haven and who represents the vast, Arctic constituency of Nunavut. The Globe and Mail 

 

Aglukkaq of the Arctic: Can Federal Minister Set a Vision for International Council? With a huge polar bear skin proudly displayed on one wall of her Parliament Hill office and the baton-sized penis bone of a walrus set on a nearby shelf, federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq's central point in a recent interview - that the Arctic "is not just a giant park" - is amply punctuated. It's a place, she insists, where wildlife should be protected but also sustainably exploited by the mainly Inuit residents of Canada's North. And that principle, she argues, should also guide the management of all other natural resources - oil, gas, diamonds, gold - at a time when melting sea ice and a robust global demand for such commodities are creating the perfect conditions for a northern economic boom. The Montreal Gazette 

 

Business to Have Role in Arctic Debates, Say Aglukkaq. Creating a bigger presence for industry at the world's premiere international forum on northern issues won't distract from its work on environmental problems, says the Conservative cabinet minister about to lead the group. "Absolutely not," said Leona Aglukkaq, who will assume the chairmanship of the group of the eight nations that ring the North Pole starting on Wednesday. "That research, the work of interest to all the Arctic regions, that will continue during our chairmanship." CTV News 

 

Proposal For Border Fees Between US, Canada Shot Down in Congress. The U.S. won't introduce border-crossing fees at land ports of entry after all. The Department of Homeland Security had wanted the U.S. Congress to authorize the study of a fee that could be collected from everyone entering the U.S. at land crossings bordering Canada and Mexico. There are five land ports of entry between Alaska and Canada - at Poker Creek on the Top of the World Highway, on the Alcan Highway near Tok, at Dalton Cache on the Haines Highway, at Skagway on the Klondike Highway and in Hyder. Alaska Dispatch 

 

As Arctic Thaws, Competition Heats Up. The icy Arctic is emerging as a global economic hot spot -- and one that is becoming a security concern for the U.S. as world powers jockey to tap its vast energy resources and stake out unclaimed territories. Diplomats from eight Arctic nations, including Secretary of State John Kerry, will meet next week over how to protect the thawing region as its waterways increasingly open to commercial shipping traffic. Press Herald 

 

Warming to the Idea of Arctic Exploration. The Arctic is no virgin. As early as 1920, the first onshore oil wells were dug in Canada's Mackenzie River valley. Since then more than 400 oil and gas fields have been discovered in the Arctic region. However, thanks to the harsh environment and high operational costs, progress for both oil and gas and shipping industries there has been slow. A warmer Arctic, where melting sea ice clears sea routes allowing more traffic and construction for better infrastructure, is certainly more inviting. And this is exactly what is happening. Since 1951 the Arctic has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the world. During this period, the temperature in Greenland rose by 1.5 C, compared with a global average of 0.7 C, research data shows. Evidence also demonstrates that the discrepancy is likely to continue. China Daily 

 

Novel 'Oblique Icebreaker' Will Clear Wider Path for Arctic Industry. Even as the White House took a step forward on Arctic policy by signing its National Strategy for the Arctic Region on Friday, the U.S. lags behind other Arctic nations in taking advantage of its northernmost borders. Icebreaking capability is one area where the U.S. is lacking, and a new icebreaker commissioned by the Russian government and expected for delivery early next year may put America even further behind the curve. If it works as expected, the "oblique icebreaker" being developed by the Russian Ministry of Transport and Finnish engineering firm Aker Arctic could be a game changer as commercial ship traffic and resource development ramps up in an increasingly ice-free polar region. In addition to moving ahead and astern, the new vessel will also be able to turn itself sideways -- obliquely -- allowing its much-longer broadside to clear a wider path for following vessels or spill cleanup efforts in certain types of ice. Alaska Dispatch