ENERGY POLICY: Senate votes to create new research arm at DOE
Ben Geman and Lauren Morello, E&E Daily reporters
The Senate easily approved a broad science research and education bill yesterday that would create a special agency within the Energy Department to spur research into breakthrough energy technologies.
The bill would also require new policies to prevent suppression or distortion of research at federal science agencies.
The chamber voted 88-8 in favor of S. 761, the "America COMPETES Act." The measure would create an Advanced Research Projects Authority for Energy within DOE tasked with overcoming "long-term and high-risk technological barriers in the development of energy technologies." This includes renewables, fossil energy, nuclear, efficiency and carbon sequestration.
The concept of the advanced research agency is modeled after the military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The idea of creating an ARPA-E will also be the focus of a hearing today in the House Science and Technology Committee.
The COMPETES bill also would authorize other science and education programs at several federal agencies, including provisions that would nearly double funding for DOE's Office of Science over 10 years. Included in the bill are sections related to research at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (see related story).
The bill's sponsors include Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and the chairmen and ranking members on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and Commerce committees.
"This is a comprehensive approach to ensuring America remains competitive in the global marketplace," Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said in a prepared statement yesterday after passage. "It not only invests in the kind of basic scientific research and development that will yield the next big technological discoveries, it also ensures that we are preparing the next generation of American scientists, mathematicians and engineers."
It is one of several bills that have been introduced based on reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the Council on Competitiveness. Both cautioned that the United States risks losing its position as a scientific leader as global economic development increases.
The measure, which draws from Senate competitiveness bills introduced in the 109th Congress, is organized around three goals: increasing spending on federal scientific research, improving science education and "developing an innovation infrastructure."
The White House has come out against several provisions in the legislation -- including the ARPA-E plan -- and cited concerns about the costs of the bill (E&ENews PM, April 23).
But the "statement of administration policy" earlier this week stopped well short of a veto threat. Instead, the administration says it "looks forward to working with Congress to address these various policy concerns as the legislative process moves forward." Bill calls for new scientific communications policies
The bill also includes language that directs the federal government to develop new policies meant to ensure the open communication of federal scientific research, both within the government and to the general public.
Under the measure, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of Management and Budget and the heads of federal civilian science agencies would have 90 days after the bill is enacted to issue "an overarching set of principles to ensure the communication and open exchange of data and results ... and to prevent the intentional or unintentional suppression or distortion" of federal research.
Within 180 days after the bill is enacted, OSTP would be required to demonstrate that all federal civilian science agencies have developed agency-specific policies for public release of scientific research.
The provision comes after widespread reports of suppressed or distorted scientific results at federal science agencies, including NOAA and NASA.