Science policy this week: August 4, 2025

What’s Ahead

A man in a suit speaks from behind a podium that says "Palmer Trucks." Six people in suits stand behind him. — EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (center) announced plans to rescind the agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions at a truck dealership in Indiana on July 29. Energy Secretary Chris Wright (far left) participated in the announcement.

Environmental Protection Agency

EPA, DOE question climate risks in GHG reg rollback

The Environmental Protection Agency released a proposal last week to rescind its 2009 endangerment finding, which underpins the agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the justification for the move, the Department of Energy released a report on the climate impacts of greenhouse gas emissions that concludes the warming induced by carbon dioxide “appears to be less damaging economically than commonly believed, and that aggressive mitigation strategies may be misdirected.” DOE Secretary Chris Wright tapped five scientists known to be skeptical of climate change impact assessments to produce the report, which criticizes aspects of global climate models and notes some positive effects of elevated carbon dioxide concentrations.

The EPA will hold a virtual public hearing Aug. 19 and 20 to receive comment on the proposal, while DOE issued a request for comment on the report that closes Sept. 2. “Speaking from the perspective of individuals who have commented on the IPCC and NCA reports only to see our comments ignored, we plan to take a different approach,” wrote Judith Curry, one of the DOE report authors, in a blog post. “Rather than primarily seeking to defend our report, we regard the open comments as an opportunity for dialogue, learning, and clarification of areas of disagreement,” she added. Curry wrote that she hopes for the “redirection of climate science… away from alarmism and advocacy and towards better understanding of the fundamentals of climate dynamics.”

Various scientists whose work is cited in the report have said it uses their research in a misleading way. One such scientist, Zeke Hausfather, wrote that the report “cherrypicks figures and parts of studies to support a preconceived narrative that minimizes the risk of climate change.” Mainstream climate scientists are now mulling ways to offer a coordinated rebuttal to the report.

Turmoil continues over university grant cancellations

The University of California, Los Angeles was cut off from funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health last week after the Justice Department concluded that the university had violated civil rights law in its “deliberately indifferent” response to students’ claims of antisemitism. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk protested the decision, stating the university has taken various actions against antisemitism and that “this far-reaching penalty of defunding life-saving research does nothing to address any alleged discrimination.”

Other universities hit with similar cuts have begun to strike deals with the White House to have research funding restored: Columbia University agreed to pay a $200 million fine to the federal government over three years while Brown University agreed to pay $50 million over ten years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island. Both agreements also include restrictions on diversity and inclusion initiatives, among other provisions. Meanwhile, other universities such as Harvard and Northwestern have announced layoffs that are related to the funding cuts and other financial pressures, and the Massachusetts governor is proposing to allocate $400 million to offset cuts at universities in the state and at Boston hospitals.

The outlook for grant funding remains uncertain even for NIH grants that have already been judicially ordered to be restored. Some scientists whose grants were included on the list for reinstatements said they have not received the funding as of July. Meanwhile, five higher education associations asked NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya last week to restore not just the approximately 900 grants subject to the court rulings but all grants “terminated pursuant to the same directives, using the same process, and according to the same termination rationale,” which total more than 2,000.

Congress faces backlog of work after recess

The House and Senate will face a daunting slate of work when they return from summer recess in early September. Neither chamber has completed work on appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2026, which begins in October, and they still need to reconcile wide differences in their proposed allocations. Although both chambers have disagreed with the depth of cuts proposed by the Trump administration, the House has still proposed significant cuts to several science agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The Senate has mostly proposed small increases or marginal cuts to science agencies, though it has yet to release its proposals for the Department of Energy due to a push for cuts by the Senate’s top appropriator for DOE.

The Senate also still has a long list of presidential nominees to work through, a process that Democrats have slowed to a crawl by stretching out debate on each nominee. Senators were unable to reach a deal to accelerate nomination votes before departing Washington last week, and Republicans are now vowing to change the rules by simple majority vote when they return. Among the science agency nominations awaiting votes include those for DOE’s top science role, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and its deputies, and the director of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has yet to make nominations for several key science posts, including the head of the DOE Office of Science, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Science Foundation, whose director resigned in April. Trump also has not yet nominated a NASA administrator after withdrawing his earlier pick of Jared Isaacman, instead having the secretary of transportation fill the role on an acting basis.

Also on our radar

NIH published a request for information last week with five possible options for its proposed limits on publishing costs for open access articles.
DOJ released guidance last week on DEI practices that may be considered unlawful discrimination and result in loss of grant funding.
DOE reissued a request for proposals for the Jefferson Lab operations contract, due Oct. 3.
A lawsuit on NSF grant terminations must be brought before a different court, a federal judge ruled last week. He added that the plaintiffs had not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of a case because NSF continues to fund projects that promote participation in STEM fields by women, minorities, and people with disabilities.