Government Concentrates

Clear Skies vote postponed

Senate Republicans announced last week that they will work with Democrats to craft legislation to implement President George W. Bush's Clear Skies initiative for reducing air pollution from utilities. They also postponed a vote on a pending Clear Skies bill (S. 131) until March 2 (C&EN, Feb. 14, page 29). On Feb. 15, Republican senators released a new version of the bill that takes into consideration several concerns raised by Democrats and environmental activists. The new version would require utilities to make major cuts in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury emissions by 2016, two years earlier than Bush requested. It would not require curbs on carbon dioxide emissions but would include incentives for clean-coal technology. Also under the new version, any utility unit that emits at least 30 lb of mercury per year--rather than 50 lb per year--would have to curb releases of this metal. The new version calls for EPA to study and require further emission reductions to address any "hot spots" of mercury remaining under Clear Skies. Plus, while allowing operators of industrial boilers and process heaters--including chemical manufacturers--to join the Clear Skies effort voluntarily, the bill would not allow them to trade emission allowances with utilities.

Railroad seeks to overturn shipments ban

The railroad company CSX Transportation filed a federal lawsuit last week to block the District of Columbia's ban on the transportation of hazardous materials near the U.S. Capitol. In addition, the comment period closed on the railroad's petition to overturn the D.C. statute filed two weeks ago with the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which oversees railroad service and rates disputes. The law, the first of its kind in the nation, bans the movement of hazardous material within a 2.2-mile radius of the Capitol but would allow CSX to apply for a permit from the city if no practical alternative route exists (C&EN, Feb. 7, page 7). CSX argues that the law violates federal interstate transportation and commerce regulations and statutes in its suit and its petition to STB. The railroad is likely to seek an injunction from the federal court and has asked for an expedited decision from the board, saying the law is disruptive to commercial transportation. D.C. city council officials have challenged that view, however, saying that CSX has told them the railroad is already voluntarily rerouting such shipments around the Capitol. The law, the council says, is only to ensure rerouting will continue.

Yucca Mountain repository delayed again

Department of Energy officials announced recently that the nuclear waste repository under study at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, is not likely to be opened until 2012, two years later than the previously promised date. Margaret Chu, who heads the civilian radioactive waste program at DOE, also said a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the repository would be delayed until at least the end of this year. The delay, she said, was caused in part by a federal court's rejection of EPA's radiation exposure standard for the repository. EPA, Chu said, is planning to propose a new compliance standard in the spring and to finalize it by the end of the year.

U.S is slipping in research and innovation

Although the U.S. remains the world's leader in science and innovation, a series of benchmarks indicates that other countries are quickly gaining ground, according to a report from the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation, a coalition of companies, universities, and professional societies including the American Chemical Society. The report identifies 30 statistical indicators in the areas of education, the workforce, knowledge creation and new ideas, R&D investment, the high-tech economy, and specific high-tech sectors that show that U.S. prominence is slipping. A panel of business and academic leaders warned about the implications of the declining benchmarks at the report's release. For example, in education, Nils Hasselmo, president of the Association of American Universities, a consortium of research universities, warned that "the U.S. may be about to experience a significant decline in the number of scientists and engineers it will have available to maintain, and further strengthen, its innovative capacity--just as international competition is picking up unprecedented strength." The panel underscored the report's conclusion that the federal investment in science--specifically in physical sciences and engineering--must be increased for the U.S. to remain a global leader.

GOVERNMENT & POLICY ROUNDUP

The Senate unanimously confirmed Michael Chertoff as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Chertoff gave up a lifetime appointment as a federal judge to succeed Tom Ridge, DHS's first secretary. One of Chertoff's first jobs will be to explain and defend DHS's budget before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Protein Structure Initiative--a 10-year National Institute of General Medical Sciences program to determine 3-D shapes of a range of proteins--has determined more than 1,000 protein structures. The program's milestone comes as the approximately $600 million program hits its halfway point.

President George W. Bush has nominated John D. Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, to be the first director of national intelligence. The director will be responsible for overseeing the 15 agencies that make up the intelligence community. Bush also nominated Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, director of the National Security Agency, as Negroponte's deputy. The nominations need to be confirmed by the Senate.