Press Response to APS Statement; DOE Authorization, Hydrogen Hearings
FRANK PRESS RESPONDS TO APS STATEMENT ON ACADEMY R&D REPORT: FYI #35 described a February House Science Committee hearing at which Press discussed the National Academies’ report, “Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology,” (details of the report were covered in FYIs #171 and #172, 1995.) Two officials of the American Physical Society submitted for the hearing a statement (quoted in FYI #37) commenting on the Academy report. On March 15, Press issued a four-page response to the APS statement. While it is too lengthy to quote in FYI, readers who have followed the debate over the R&D report may want to read the response in full. Press’s “Comments on Schrieffer-Bromley Statement Submitted to House Science Committee” are available on a NAS Website at: http://www.nas.edu/fsrd/fsrd.html or a copy of the response can be obtained by sending an email request to R-DSTUDY@NAS.EDU .
DOE AUTHORIZATION HEARINGS: On March 21, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) chaired a hearing of the House Science Energy Subcommittee to consider authorizing legislation for the science programs of several agencies, including the Department of Energy. Much of the discussion revolved around how many programs within DOE’s Office of Energy Research actually support R&D. Rohrabacher stressed that he wanted to cut deployment and promotional programs rather than true R&D. DOE official Joseph Romm agreed that, while DOE was not involved in commercialization of technologies, it supported programs to help move technologies into the marketplace. He noted that testing and deployment provide necessary feedback for research, adding, “one can create arbitrary distinctions, or one can try to maximize the national benefits.” Rohrabacher countered that “setting honest categories down is an important part of the debate.” Reps. Vern Ehlers (R-MI) and Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) expressed hope that funding for energy research and efficiency would be increased, and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) inquired about the FY 1997 budget request’s support for U.S. involvement in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Deputy Director for Energy Research, James Decker, responded that the request included $15 million for detector R&D, and estimated that 500 U.S. physicists were interested in using the LHC.
On the previous day, the Senate Subcommittee on Energy Research and Development considered House and Senate bills promoting hydrogen’s potential as a clean-burning, environmentally-friendly fuel. H.R. 655 and S. 1077 would authorize $100 million through FY 1998 for DOE’s hydrogen R&D, remaining budget-neutral by capping the department’s energy supply activities. (An authorization bill can suggest funding levels, but it is up to the appropriators to actually provide the money.) S. 1153, sponsored by Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), would also authorize an additional $50 million over two years for specific demonstration-commercialization projects: one at Georgetown University, and follow-on projects in Montana, New Mexico and Alaska.
The Administration’s FY 1997 request for hydrogen energy R&D is $11.0 million, a 24% decrease from the FY 1996 appropriation of $14.5 million. Allan Hoffman of DOE testified that while the department supports the goal of hydrogen as a future energy source, it finds the bills overly prescriptive and “strongly opposes” capping other DOE energy activities. Additionally, Hoffman argued for competitive selection of demonstration projects, rather than having them specified as in S. 1153.
