Science questions, advisers, and climate change — week of 14 September 2008

With less than seven weeks remaining before the November 4 presidential election, John McCain’s campaign finally answered questions on science policy issues that were put to both candidates months ago by “Science Debate 2008 ,” a coalition of scientific societies, universities, and other organizations. Barack Obama had provided his answers to the group in late August. Obama also replied to a separate list of questions posed by PHYSICS TODAY. McCain, however, turned down repeated invitations to respond to the questions.

Questions & Answers

McCain’s answers to the questionnaire touted his experience with science and technology issues from his years as chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. “Under my guiding hand,” McCain boasted, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that led to widespread use of cell phones and Wi-Fi technology. Not surprisingly, McCain was most specific in reply to questions on climate change and the energy crunch. He pledged to follow through on his legislative attempts to institute a cap-and-trade regulatory system to lower emissions of carbon dioxide, provide tax credits for zero-emission vehicles, and offer a $300 million prize to developers of a battery capable of “leapfrog[ging] the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.” McCain did not say what PHEVs and electric cars are currently available.

McCain’s “all of the above” approach to energy policy would include “put[ting] the country on track” to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030, devote $2 billion per year to clean-coal R&D, ratchet up automotive fuel economy standards, and reform the existing patchwork of tax credits for renewable energy. For improving education, he proposes direct federal funds to reward mathematics and science teachers, as well as to reward educators who teach in challenging schools and succeed in raising student achievement levels.

As for space policy, McCain focused his answers on NASA’s human spaceflight mission, calling its continued support a “top priority.” He promised to maximize the research capabilities and commercialization possibilities for the International Space Station, and minimize the gap between retirement of the space shuttles and completion of their replacement, the Constellation Program. McCain recently joined two of his Senate colleagues in urging NASA to delay the shuttles’ 2010 retirement date.

Like Obama, McCain committed himself to early appointment of a science adviser, and “restor[ing] the credibility and role of [the Office of Science and Technology Policy] as an office within the White House structure.” That was an apparent reference to President Bush’s decision to move the science adviser down a notch in the White House pecking order, from the “assistant to the president” title it held prior to Bush taking office to its current “deputy assistant to the president” rank. Bush also evicted OSTP, whose director is the science adviser, from the executive office building adjacent to the White House and relocated to its current home in an office building down Pennsylvania Avenue.

While promising to reinvigorate federal support for basic research programs, McCain notably did not join Obama in committing to double funding for basic physical sciences research at the Department of Energy, NSF and NIST.

The Alaska factor

Despite the complete financial meltdown affecting coverage on the campaign trail, Governor Sarah Palin’s influence on McCain’s climate change position received more scrutiny this week as the National Parks Examiner looks closely to report Palin commissioned as governor of Alaska on the impact of climate change on the state (which was the only mention of climate change on the Republican Convention website two weeks ago).The report describes the damage that could be done to the Alaskan environment and calculates Alaska’s CO₂ emissions, but does not describe any solutions to reducing the state’s carbon footprint. The state’s strategy document ignores the human factor in global warming by describing climate change as “the variation in Earth’s global and regional atmosphere over time.”

Advice for president-elect

In other news, the National Academy of Sciences unveiled its quadrennial unsolicited primer on science policy to the next president . The academy’s Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy echoes calls for the newly elected president to choose a science adviser before inauguration day. While the science adviser could not formally assume command of OSTP until being confirmed to that post by the Senate, the science adviser post requires no such consent. The chosen individual could help identify qualified candidates for other key appointments in the agencies that involve S&T issues. In actuality, the appointment has rarely been a priority for incoming administrations. The current job holder, John Marburger, was nominated by Bush more than five months after inauguration, and three more months passed before his nomination was actually submitted to the Senate.

The Obama campaign, at least, appears to be taking scientific advice somewhat seriously. This week it publicly identified the five members of its circle of advisers on scientific issues that helped to prepare its responses to the Science Debate 2008 questionnaire . Chaired by Harold Varmus, the Nobel laureate and former director of the National Institutes of Health, the committee includes just one member from the physical sciences: University of Chicago astrophysicist Donald Lamb. Others are University of Michigan professor Gilbert Omenn, a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Nobel laureate Peter Agre, director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute; and Stanford University professor Sharon Long. Varmus and Lamb also were instrumental in Obama’s responses to the questions that were submitted by PT. More than 75 scientists are believed to be directly working with the Obama campaign. On the other hand, the most prominent spokesperson for the McCain campaign on scientific issues is an economist.

David Kramer