As economy tanks, science is heading up

As the last few days of his administration ticked away, President Bush watched as his successor and the new Congress tried to work out the details and size of an economic recovery plan . Ironically, science would benefit enormously from the $825 billion stimulus package that was cobbled together by House Democrats and announced on 15 January.

Included in the bill introduced by Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey of Wisconsin--with the blessing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi-- is $10 billion for science facilities, research, and instrumentation, and a whopping $32 billion to modernize the nation’s electricity grid and expand the production of renewable energy. The biggest share of the science largess will go to the Department of Energy, where $2 billion is proposed for the basic science programs of the Office of Science, and another $2 billion for research, development, demonstration, and deployment of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies. DOE would also get $1 billion to spend on grants to pay for development of advanced batteries for vehicles. DOE would be provided loan guarantees totaling $16.4 billion for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and grid modernization projects.

Another $2.5 billion of the money for science would go to NSF, mostly to pay for 3,000 “highly rated” research awards that would employ 12 750 scientists and graduate students. Some $300 million of the NSF monies would be devoted to new research instrumentation at universities. An additional $400 million is provided to NSF’s major research equipment and facilities to accelerate construction of large projects such as telescopes.

On Friday, in a speech he delivered at a fastener company near Cleveland , President-elect Obama warned that without government action, half of the wind-energy projects that are planned for this year could be abandoned for lack of financing. “We’re committing to double the production of renewable energy in the next three years, and to modernize more than 75% of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Obama’s nominee for secretary of energy, Steven Chu, got a warm welcome at his Senate confirmation hearing, urgently telling members that US carbon emissions must be brought under control. Chu said he favors increased use of nuclear power, even as the search for a solution to the nuclear waste problem continues. Coal will continue to dominate US power generation, he acknowledged, but added that it must be accompanied by carbon capture and storage.

In a video released Thursday, Chu spoke of the imperative to limit Earth’s average temperature to no more than 2 °C , warning that bigger increases raise the likelihood of a “tipping point” occurring, such as the sudden release of methane and CO₂ that would occur if the Arctic tundra were to thaw.

Lisa Jackson, Obama’s nominee for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, promised senators at her confirmation hearing that she would follow the science in making regulatory decisions . But Jackson declined to say whether she would allow California to institute vehicle tailpipe standards that are more stringent than the rest of the nation. Nor would she reveal whether the new administration would use its authority under the Clean Air Act to introduce controls on CO₂ emissions. While the Supreme Court ruled that EPA does have that authority, the Bush administration punted on the issue.

There were reports that Obama was close to selecting Air Force Maj. Gen. Jonathan Scott Gration , a decorated fighter pilot, to be administrator of NASA. The news appeared to end whatever hopes that Michael Griffin had to survive the transition to a new administration, as one of his predecessors, Daniel Golden, managed to do twice. Gration is reported to be unknown to the space community.

In other personnel news, Clinton administration veteran Susan Tierney looked set to become the number two official at the Department of Energy . Tierney had been assistant secretary for policy and international affairs in the Clinton years, and since then has been a consultant on energy and economic matters.

Outgoing presidential science adviser John Marburger once again denied that Bush had ignored or suppressed science throughout the last eight years. In an interview in Seed magazine conducted just after the election, but published only last Tuesday, Marburger said the notion that Bush was anti-science is “an urban legend.” He noted that Bush was the first president to permit federal funding to be used for research involving human embryonic stem cells, albeit with restrictions on the cell lines that could be used. And he pointed to Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative, which proposed doubling the basic research budgets of DOE, NSF, and NIST over 10 years, as an example of the outgoing president’s support for science.

David Kramer