Energy continues to dominate — week of 17 August 2008

While the week’s political news was overshadowed by the Olympics, energy continued at the top of the list of campaign issues. On Saturday, during the Democratic response to the president’s radio address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fell into step with Sen. Barack Obama’s grudging acceptance of offshore oil drilling: saying She will allow a vote to be taken to open up more of the outer continental shelf to exploration as part of broader energy legislation to be considered when the House reconvenes next month. On a visit to a Gulf of Mexico oil rig on Tuesday, Senator John McCain boldly, if improbably declared that the US will attain energy independence during his presidency, “by using every resource at our disposal to get the job done, including new offshore drilling .” McCain continued to tout his “all of the above” energy policy that highlights offshore drilling and the expansion of nuclear power, also calls for more renewables, clean coal and conservation. “Senator Obama says he wants energy independence, but he’s opposed to new drilling at home, he’s opposed to nuclear power,” McCain told a town hall meeting a day later in New Mexico. “My friends, we have to have nuclear power. Nuclear power has got to be part of any way of us being energy independent.” McCain has called for 45 new US reactors to be built by 2030, and for the reprocessing of their spent fuel. Obama, campaigning in New Mexico on Tuesday, was a bit more circumspect in his use of “energy independence ,” but told an interviewer that the state’s national laboratories will be critical in helping the nation to develop alternative energy solutions. He promised more R&D investments at the labs, saying they would create jobs and spin off technologies. On Tuesday, Obama’s campaign began airing a second television spot in Nevada that criticizes McCain’s support for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The ad cites Nevadans’ declarations that McCain would not back the waste dump if it were to be located in his home state .

Campaigning for McCain in Wisconsin, potential running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty charged that Obama’s tepid support for nuclear and offshore drilling would “slam the door shut” on both potential options . Obama countered that McCain had dropped his longstanding opposition to offshore drilling only in recent months, when the public began clamoring for lawmakers to address soaring gasoline prices.

Support for NASA

Both presidential candidates, meanwhile, courted voters in the key swing state of Florida with pledges of support for NASA . Obama, fresh from vacation in Hawaii, released a position paper on Sunday calling for $2 billion in new funding to accelerate the space agency’s Constellation program to develop a replacement for the space shuttles. The Democrat also promised to add at least one additional flight before the shuttles’ 2010 retirement, a move that would allow NASA to transport the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experimental device to the International Space Station.

NASA has told the international collaboration that built the nearly completed AMS that it lacks funding to ferry the instrument, and must use all remaining shuttle flights to finish ISS construction. The Obama policy also formalized the reversal of his December proposal to cut NASA’s budget to pay for increases to education programs. Meanwhile McCain, who had issued a less detailed space policy paper devoid of dollar figures the previous week , told a private meeting of business leaders in Cocoa Beach to be wary of Obama’s promises for NASA, saying that they reflected his opponent’s inexperience. But former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver told reporters in a conference call that McCain’s voting record did not indicate enthusiastic support for NASA. She pointed to the Arizonan’s opposition to a bill introduced last year that would add $1 billion to the Constellation program, compensating for costs that were incurred in the aftermath of the 2003 Columbia explosion.

McCain unveils plans for education, technology

McCain unveiled a revised education plan; highlights of interest to the science community include

○ Preparing for “the 21st century in higher education” by removing regulatory barriers that (he claims) prevent institutions from using new ideas and by encouraging the government to support innovative approaches to education. “We must rise to the challenge and modernize our universities so that they retain their status as producers of the most skilled workforce in the world,” the plan reads.

○ Eliminating earmarking, the process lawmakers use to steer research funds to particular facilities or projects, circumventing the accepted competitive grant mechanisms.

McCain also released a technology platform that is heavy on corporate tax reductions, including permanent extension of the R&D credit, the pursuit of free and fair trade provisions, bolstering of global intellectual property protections, and promotion of universal access to a regulation-free internet. Some elements of the policy are of particular interest to science, including:○ Expand the number of H-1B visas to allow industry access to highly trained foreign workers.○ Fully fund last year’s America Competes Act, which authorized new programs to improve the teaching of science and mathematics in schools.○ Increasing the use of cooperative research and development agreements between government and industry to share the cost of solving problems and to accelerate the application of technology in the government. “This way the government is a leader of the technology revolution and not simply a beneficiary,” the policy explains.○ Employ more scientists in government . “As president. John McCain will be committed to bringing talented men and women of science into the federal government. He will strive to ensure that administration appointees across the government have adequate experience and understanding of science, technology and innovation in order to better serve the American people.”

David Kramer