Endangered leatherbacks, the planet's largest sea turtle, have been known to swim 6,000 miles from Indonesia to feed on jellyfish off the U.S. West Coast. Today NOAA designated about 42,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean off Washington, Oregon and California as critical habitat for leatherbacks. It's the first critical habitat for sea turtles off the continental U.S. and the largest (there already was an area designated as critical habitat for leatherbacks along Sandy Point Beach on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and in adjacent waters in the Atlantic.)

The designation affects only federal projects that would destroy habitat, such as offshore drilling or other energy ventures. The National Marine Fisheries Service would have to assess such projects and take action to protect the turtles.

The two protected areas are the California coast from Point Arena to Point Arguello and from Cape Flattery, Wash., to Cape Blanco, Ore. 

Leatherbacks, which can grow up to 9 feet long, have been listed as endangered, or threatened with extinction, since 1970. NOAA notes in its press release today:

"Leatherbacks face many dangers both in the marine environment and on land, including bycatch in fishing gear, habitat destruction and the harvest of eggs and adults on nesting beaches."

A report out today from NOAA looks back on 2011 and sees a year of record climate extremes _ heat, flooding, heavy precipitation and severe weather in many parts of the country.

Another highlight: Although 2011 was a La Nina year, a condition that drives cooler global temperatures, it was the 11th warmest year on record.

And NOAA announced two more billion-dollar severe weather events for the year, bringing the total to 14. For more details on the year's weather disasters and weird weather details nationally and globally, see NOAA's news release.

NASA also put out its annual climate data today. NASA's temperature record is compiled from data from 1,000 weather stations, satellite data and Antarctic research station measurements. It tracks closely to NOAA's data.

NASA reported the global average temperature last year was the ninth warmest on record (since 1880). Nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since the year 2000.

From a NASA news release: Higher temperatures today are largely sustained by increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. These gases absorb infrared radiation emitted by Earth and release that energy into the atmosphere rather than allowing it to escape to space. As their atmospheric concentration has increased, the amount of energy "trapped" by these gases has led to higher temperatures.

A day after Supreme Court justices fumed at the EPA, President Barack Obama lauded the agency's employees -- telling them "your mission is vital.

"I want you to know that you’ve got a President who is grateful for your work and will stand with you every inch of the way as you carry out your mission to make sure that we’ve got a cleaner world," he said.

He took issue with critics who say that environmental regulations slow growth.

"When I hear folks grumbling about environmental policy, you almost want to do a Back to the Future kind of reminder of what happens when we didn't have a strong EPA," he said, noting that the year before President Nixon created the EPA, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio "was so dirty from industrial pollution and oil slicks that it literally caught on fire."

And he said 40 years ago, in the Chicago River, "you probably could not find anything alive in there."

He said he "doesn't buy" the "notion that we have to make a choice between having clean air and clean water and growing this economy in a robust way." 

He argued that new fuel economy standards will slash oil consumption, reduce the pollution that contributes to climate change, and save consumers at the pump.

"What's good for the environment can also be good for our economy," he said.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Obama has "stood by this agency," -- though he did overrule the EPA late last September and sided with business groups, ordering a sudden halt to a plan to toughen the Bush administration's limits on smog.

Forty-nine scientists in New Hampshire today sent a letter to the presidential candidates, asking them to "acknowledge the overwhelming balance of evidence for the underlying causes of climate change."

The letter notes that the National Academy of Sciences and all scientific societies in the country have stated that the climate is warming as a result of human activities, mostly from burning fossil fuels.

"Ignoring the issue of climate change places our health, our quality of life, our economic vitality, and our children’s future at risk," it argues.

Scientists in Iowa sent a similar climate change letter to candidates last month.

NOAA today released its draft study of what offshore oil and gas activities in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas north of Alaska will mean for marine mammals. Find a link to the report and information about it, including how to comment on it, are here (along with some of the agency's whale and seal photos from the Arctic). NOAA says the study will contribute to the decision-making at the Department of Interior about issuing permits for seismic studies. 

Still no compromise on an extension of the Social Security payroll tax break as of late afternoon Friday.

The problem is a dispute over the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would extend 1,700 miles western Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. It would bring oil from oil sands in Canada to the U.S. President Barack Obama wants to delay a decision until 2013. Republicans want a ruling far more quickly,and want to include an expedited review in the payroll tax legislation.

Their position was firm Friday. "Frankly, I will not be able to support a package that doesn't include the pipeline," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

"I think this is something we could all be proud of here at the end of the year, demonstrating to the American people that we can work together, not only to help those who are struggling through a continuation of the payroll tax holiday and an unemployment benefits package, but also create jobs at the same time in the private sector without a penny of the federal government's money by moving this pipeline along."

Democrats were huddling on how to proceed; Republicans were meeting separately. Some sort of accord is still expected, perhaps as soon as Friday night.

House Republicans today put a policy measure in the spending bill that would ban the Department of Energy from enforcing efficiency standards for light bulbs.

Why? It's a topic that has come up year after year, apparently based on the mistaken idea that the standards ban the traditional light bulb. In fact, there's no ban, and improved incandescent bulbs are for sale everywhere, along with many other even more efficient types of bulbs.

Congress passed the lighting standards in 2007 and President George W. Bush signed them into law. The standards didn't say what kinds of bulbs had to be made and sold. The big lighting companies made more efficient incandescent bulbs with the same look and light as the old bulbs, but less heat. They also last longer and use less energy, saving money.

Republicans for Environmental Responsibility said in a statement today that Congress should get over what the group called its "light bulb obsession." "Blocking the standards would be a slap in the face to lighting manufacturers who in good faith invested millions to produce better lighting that helps Americans reduce their energy bills and keeps harmful pollutants out of the air."

Mitt Romney's latest broadside at Newt Gingrich involves Gingrich's 2008 ad with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging action on climate change.

The two sit on a loveseat, with the Capitol in the background, urging dialogue on the issue. Gingrich explained earlier this year he was trying to simulate debate, but Pelosi is despised by many conservatives.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, Wednsday launched an ad against Gingrich, a former House speaker.

Here's the text of Romney's ad:.

VIDEO TEXT: “When Al Gore needed support for his liberal Global Warming agenda … He turned to his friend Nancy Pelosi…”

NANCY PELOSI: “Hi! I’m Nancy Pelosi.”

VIDEO TEXT: “to push job-killing climate change legislation”

VIDEO TEXT: “When Pelosi wasn’t enough…”

VIDEO TEXT: “Newt Gingrich gave his support”

NEWT GINGRICH: “We do agree: our country must take action to address climate change.”

VIDEO TEXT: “Pelosi and Gingrich Promoted Al Gore’s liberal Global Warming Agenda”

NEWT GINGRICH: “If enough of us demand action from our leaders…”

NANCY PELOSI: “Together, we can do this.”

VIDEO TEXT: “With friends like Newt, who needs The Left?”

Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who heads the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, sent a message today to the global climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa.

The top item: "There are leaders in the U.S. Congress who understand the urgent threat facing the globe, and despite reports to the contrary, many members of Congress are committed to lessening the impacts of unchecked climate change."

"Many," though, is short a majority, and so there's no prospect of any legislation for a national plan for emission reductions. Boxer said that the "massive threat to the environment and human health that is posed by climate change requires us to put aside partisan differences, to find common ground, and to demand immediate international action."

Boxer isn't going to the climate talks this year. She read her remarks at the Capitol, and members of her staff were distributing them at the Durban talks.

Science organizations have been reporting observations and conclusions about climate change for years. The World Meterological Organization reported that 13 of the warmest years on record occurred in the past 15 years. And the National Academy of Sciences, in a report in 2010, said: “Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for — and in many cases is already affecting — a broad range of human and natural systems.”

The Navy today announced its making the biggest purchase of biofuels by the government to date. It’s for 450,000 gallons made from waste cooking oils from Dynamic Fuels in Louisiana and algae from Solazyme in California.

The total cost is $12 million, which works out to $26 a gallon.

The Navy plans to use it for surface ships and aircraft in a demonstration exercise next summer off Hawaii. “It’s half of what we were paying this time last year. It shows that as the market develops, you’re going to see see costs come down,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said on a conference call with reporters.

Mabus said the purchase is just a step but argued it’s an important one for reducing oil dependence and the budget shocks that come with buying oil from volatile places. He's been pushing for a few years for the military to create an early market for biofuels (previous story here).

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters that another thing to consider in the cost-benefit analysis is the potential market for the commercial aviation industry at about 13 billion gallons of fuel a year. Vilsack said there’s a big opportunity for jobs in the future if the U.S. could supply its own non-petroleum fuel for commercial aviation and the military.

The Department of Defense budget for what it calls “energy security initiatives” has gone up to $1.2 billion. Biofuels are one of its top three programs, along with developing more fuel-efficient vehicles and adding energy efficiency and renewable energy at military bases and forward operating bases.