Coastline competition: Coastal researchers, both student and professional, can apply for about $3 million in competitive grant money from The RESTORE Act Center of Excellence for Louisiana. The grants will fund projects that directly relate to the implementation of Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, according to a news release. The funding comes from settlements of the federal Water Pollution Control Act in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Funding will be awarded in three categories: research, collaborative and graduate studentships. Selection of the award recipients will occur in the first half of next year, allowing researchers to start work on their projects in August 2017, the news release says. The deadline for submission of letters of intent is Dec. 9, and the deadline for submission of full proposals is Jan. 25, 2017. Get more information.
Barrel bickering: With only two days to go before ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries try to finalize the first decrease in oil production in eight years, the foundations for a deal are looking shaky, Bloomberg reports. Internal divisions over how to share the cuts and Russian resistance to reducing supply are threatening to halt the anticipated cut in oil production. And Khalid Al-Falih, the Saudi oil minister, for the first time on Sunday floated the possibility of leaving Vienna without an agreement. Al-Falih’s comments came two days after Saudi Arabia pulled out of a meeting with non-members including Russia, arguing that OPEC needs to sort out its internal divisions before engaging with other producers. Without an OPEC cut, the International Energy Agency predicts that the oil market will remain in surplus for a fourth year in 2017, which could cause prices to fall. Read the full story.
Deal breaker: Donald Trump warned in a tweet this morning that he would terminate the 2014 deal that reopened Cuban-American relations if Havana is unwilling to negotiate a better agreement, CNBC reports. The tweet reaffirms Trump’s hardline stance on U.S.-Cuba relations, which became evident on Saturday when he released a statement in response to Fidel Castro’s death that condemned him for oppressing his people. “If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal,” the tweet reads. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager and senior adviser, commented this weekend on Trump’s stance, saying “on the issue of diplomatic relations being re-opened with Cuba, what President-elect Trump says is that he’d be open to that himself, but that we got nothing in return.” Read the full story.
