Short Takes – 6-30-23

Congressional AI proponent Ted Lieu pushes back on ChatGPT restrictions placed by House administrative office. FedScoop.com article. Pull quote: “FedScoop first reported in April that the House of Representatives’ digital service had obtained 40 licenses of ChatGPT Plus, the first publicized congressional use of the popular AI tool. House offices said they were using ChatGPT for generating constituent response drafts and press documents, summarizing large amounts of text in speeches, and drafting policy papers or, in some cases, bill language.”

Irrigation may be shifting Earth’s rotational axis. ScienceNews.org article. Pull quote: “When all sources of water movement are considered — including the runoff of meltwater from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets — the North Pole drifted about 1.6 meters toward the east coast of Greenland in that time [1993-2010]. The impact of irrigation was mostly to nudge the pole generally east of where it would have gone otherwise, the team found. Without irrigation, the pole would have drifted nearly the same amount, but toward the center of Greenland instead.”

Comment Request; Chemical Data Reporting Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (Renewal). Federal Register EPA 30-day ICR Notice. Changes in Burden Estimate: “Changes in the estimates: There is an increase of 10,194 hours in the total estimated burden compared with that currently approved by OMB. This increase reflects a combination of reporting requirement changes including changes to the information reported (+35,611 hours) and changes to the number of reporters (−25,417 hours) due to byproducts exemptions and a new small manufacturer definition, which were included in two ICR addendums approved by OMB in 2020 (one associated with the 2020 CDR Revisions Rule and the other with the 2020 8(a) SMD Update Rule).” Comments due July 31^st 2023.

Pipeline Safety: Gas Pipeline Leak Detection and Repair. Federal Register PHMSA NPRM Comment Extension. Summary: “On May 18, 2023, PHMSA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register titled: “Pipeline Safety: Gas Pipeline Leak Detection and Repair.” PHMSA received requests to extend the comment period for stakeholders to have more time to evaluate the NPRM. PHMSA is therefore extending the comment period to August 16, 2023.” New comment deadline date: August 16^th, 2023.