White Oak Pastures is proud to announce the opening of their on-farm, USDA-Inspected, zero-waste, Certified Humane poultry abattoir located in Bluffton, Ga. This is the only processing facility available for independent farmers raising pastured birds in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, or Tennessee.  The birds are USDA inspected, free range, global animal partnership was rated the highest, incredibly fresh, individually bagged, certified humane and animal welfare approved.

As United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk moves to consider ways to improve the nation’s trade relationship with the European Union (EU) as part of the recently-formed U.S.-EU High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth, the American Soybean Association (ASA) submitted formal comments reminding the ambassador that the EU’s heavy-handed policies on biotech soybeans, as well as inaccurate characterization of biodiesel by the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), have contributed to a 70 percent drop in total soybean export quantity and a 44 percent decrease in soybean export value to the EU over the last 14 years.

This afternoon, Representative John Mica (R-FL), Chairman of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, officially introduced a major transportation reauthorization bill. The overall plan for the bill includes proposals to open the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as well as the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, and to open landscapes in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to oil shale extraction. At the same time, it cuts all funding for biking and walking safety and cripples environmental review for transportation projects. On top of this, Speaker of the House John Boehner has said that he would attach approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to this bill if it were not otherwise immediately approved.

Sale Will Make Nearly 38 million Acres Available as Part of the President’s Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future

The Obama administration announced that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold the consolidated Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 216/222 in New Orleans on June 20, 2012. The sale will include all available unleased areas in the Central Planning Area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

President Obama will discuss today’s announcement during remarks in Nevada later today, in which he will highlight his administration’s commitment to promoting safe and responsible domestic oil and gas production as part of a comprehensive energy strategy. This is one of many steps that the Administration is taking, at the President’s direction, to increase responsible domestic production and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

The House of Representatives majority leadership released a sweeping transportation bill yesterday that would upend long-accepted practices for how the nation's highways, bridges are planned and built, gutting basic environmental safeguards for air and water quality and green space, and deepening our dependence on oil.  It also threatens coastal communities and ecology by opening up the Atlantic for the first time to oil and gas drilling.

The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act is expected to be in mark-up in the House Natural Resources Committee today, and in mark-up in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy's (ATC) Board of Directors has appointed Mark J. Wenger as the new Executive Director who will lead the organization beginning February 2012. Wenger will succeed David N. Startzell, the longest serving Executive Director in the ATC's history.

Wenger is active in the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) community as a life member of both the Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club (TATC) and the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club. He is past program chair, vice president, and president of TATC.  He was most recently Regional Partnership Committee (RPC) representative and chairman for the Virginia region.  He also served on the steering committee for the recently completed 2011 Virginia Journeys, the ATC's 38th Biennial Conference. On August 1, 2011, he completed an 8-year, 3-month effort to section hike the A.T.

Agricultural Producers in Five States Will Help Improve Ecosystem Health of Gulf Coast

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is launching an innovative water and wildlife conservation effort along the Gulf Coast of the United States. This action is part of the Obama Administration's efforts through its Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. The Task Force today released its final strategy for long term ecosystem restoration for the Gulf Coast.

"The Obama Administration is committed to ensuring our coasts are healthy and resilient," Vilsack said. "Helping agricultural producers voluntarily improve the health of their land will sustain and enhance the production of food and fiber, while also improving water quality upon which communities depend. This initiative also will benefit the estuaries, fisheries and wildlife so integral to jobs and the economy in the Gulf."

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released two nationwide resource assessments showing that waves and tidal currents off the nation's coasts could contribute significantly to the United States' total annual electricity production, further diversify the nation's energy portfolio, and provide clean, renewable energy to coastal cities and communities. These new wave and tidal resource assessments, combined with ongoing analyses of the technologies and other resource assessments, show that water power, including conventional hydropower and wave, tidal, and other water power resources, can potentially provide 15% of our nation's electricity by 2030. Today's reports represent the most rigorous analysis undertaken to date to accurately define the magnitude and location of America's ocean energy resources. The information in these resource assessments can help to further develop the country's significant ocean energy resources, create new industries and new jobs in America, and secure U.S. leadership in an emerging global market.

A new geospatial application developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) allows users to easily and accurately map potential renewable energy resources in the United States.