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Marine Debris Act Clears House of Reps With $5 Million in Funding Cut The U.S. House of Representatives in August passed the Marine Debris Research, Prevention and Reduction Act (H.R. 1171), which would continue funding through 2015 for NOAA's existing Marine Debris Program, but halved the program's appropriations from the initially proposed $10 million to $4.9 million.
A companion bill that has stalled in the U.S. Senate, of-
fered by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) would fund the pro- gram at the full $10 million. Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) had introduced the House version of the bill. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) proposed the amendment to cut the funding. "While I would have preferred more financial support for
this program, today's passage is a significant step towards protecting Alaska's beaches and shores from marine debris," Rep. Young said. Every year 7 million tons of trash ends up in the ocean, costing millions in cleanup costs and lost revenue for fisher- ies and the tourism industry. An additional 5 to 20 million tons of debris from Japan's 2011 tsunami will arrive on U.S. shores after crossing the Pacific.
North Carolina Bans Use of Predictive Models When Determining Sea-Level Rise A North Carolina law requiring the state's Coastal Re- sources Commission to base the next four years of its pre-
dictions of sea-level rise on historical calculations, as op- posed to predictive models, went into effect in August. Gov. Bev Perdue had one month to act on House Bill 819, which passed the state's general assembly. Perdue did not act on the bill, allowing it to become law without signature. "North Carolina should not ignore science when making public policy decisions," Perdue said. "House Bill 819 will become law because it allows local governments to use their own scientific studies to define rates of sea-level change. I urge the general assembly to revisit this issue and develop an approach that gives state agencies the flexibility to take appropriate action in response to sea-level change within the next four years." Rates of sea-level rise are increasing three to four times faster along portions of the U.S. Atlantic Coast than globally, according to a U.S. Geological Survey published earlier this summer. The study highlighted a 600-mile stretch of coast- line from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Boston, Mas- sachusetts, as a hot spot where the sea level has risen 2 to 3.7 millimeters per year since 1990, compared to the global increase over the same period that was 0.6 to 1 millimeter per year. Perdue's office received more than 3,400 letters and e- mails urging her to veto this bill and two others dealing with environmental regulations, The Wilmington Star News re- ported.
Under the law, the Coastal Resources Commission shall be the only state agency authorized to define rates of sea-lev- el change for regulatory purposes. If the commission defines rates of sea-level change for regulatory purposes, it shall do so in conjunction with the state's Division of Coastal Man-
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