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NASA?s Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet

By Andrew C. Revkin From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers … as only NASA can.” In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted. In this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s mission is “to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.” David E. Steitz, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said the aim was to square the statement with President Bush’s goal of pursuing human spaceflight to the Moon and Mars. But the change comes as an unwelcome surprise to many NASA scientists, who say the “understand and protect” phrase was not merely window dressing but actively influenced the shaping and execution of research priorities. Without it, these scientists say, there will be far less incentive to pursue projects to improve understanding of terrestrial problems like climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. “We refer to the mission statement in all our research proposals that go out for […]

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The Fuel Economy Reform Act

Last Wednesday, Senators Barack Obama (D-IL), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the Fuel Economy Reform Act to break the legislative and administrative logjam that has prevented fuel economy standards from being raised for more than 20 years. A New Approach The Fuel Economy Reform Act of 2006 seeks to break the logjam on establishing greater vehicle fuel economy by establishing a target, rather than a mandate, of a 4 percent annualized increase in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards – a rate that the National Academy of Sciences has determined is possible – unless the experts at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) justify a deviation in that rate by proving that the increase is technologically unachievable, cannot maintain overall fleet safety, or is not cost-effective when comparing with the economic and geopolitical value of a gallon of gasoline saved. Higher Fuel Economy Standards If the 4 percent per year target is met for 10 years after the continuous provision improvements go into effect, this bill will save 1.3 million barrels of oil per day and 20 billion gallons of gasoline […]

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