[naturenews] from [nature.com]
[naturenews]
Published online 15 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.922
News
Obama proposes greenhouse-gas standards for vehicles
US move is the first national regulation on carbon emissions.
By Jeff Tollefson
The Obama administration released new automobile standards on Tuesday, proposing regulations that would curb greenhouse-gas emissions and ratchet up fuel-efficiency standards beginning in 2012.
Released jointly by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation, the regulations would effectively increase fuel efficiency standards by nearly 40 percent, to more than 35.5 miles per gallon (about 15 kilometres per litre) in 2016. Greenhouse-gas emissions for an automobile company's entire fleet would be limited to an average of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile, which is nearly 30 percent less than the current average.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said the move marks a "significant advance in our work to protect health in the environment and move our nation into the sustainable, energy-efficient economy of the future". She said the new rules would not only reduce emissions and save oil but also result in consumer savings of roughly $3,000 over the lifetime of a vehicle produced in 2016.
The proposal would create a single national standard that is consistent with earlier regulations that were proposed by the state of California but blocked by the administration of former president George W. Bush. Obama reversed that decision this June.
Going national
Administration officials announced the broad outlines of the deal with automakers in May, at a time when the industry was seeking government aid to stay afloat. Both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC ended up filing for bankruptcy, leaving Ford Motor Co. as the only major US automaker standing.
Speaking at a General Motors Co. plant in Lordstown, Ohio, on Tuesday, President Barack Obama asserted that the regulations will give companies "long-overdue clarity, stability and predictability" as they struggle to pull out of a financial tailspin. Michael Stanton, president of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, called the new regulations "a welcome step" toward a single, national programme.
The regulations are rooted in a 2007 Supreme Court finding that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. The Bush administration analyzed the issue in its waning days but eventually elected to defer a final decision.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson took the first step in April with an "endangerment finding" that would formally declare carbon dioxide a danger to public health and the environment. EPA has yet to finalize that ruling, which could be expanded to include broader greenhouse gas regulations for industrial sources such as power plants and heavy industry.
In its new proposal, the administration issued two separate but complementary standards. The fuel efficiency standards, issued under the Department of Transportation, are slightly less stringent and retain loopholes in the current regulatory system. In particular, manufacturers are allowed to simply pay fines if they fail to meet the standards and to take extra credit for reduced gasoline consumption by 'flex-fuel' vehicles, even though those vehicles seldom run on high-ethanol blends.
But by 2016, automakers will have to comply with the more stringent of the two, which effectively means that the greenhouse gas standards take over, says Jim Kliesch, a senior engineer in the Union of Concerned Scientists' clean vehicles programme in Washington DC. He credits the administration with eliminating both loopholes under the EPA regulations.
In addition to increasing overall fuel efficiency, automakers could improve their air-conditioning systems and opt for new chemical refrigerants that contribute less to global warming. Other improvements will focus on a host of technologies for improving engines and transmissions, many of which are available on various vehicles today.
"I think we are going to see more of these technologies on the showroom floors as a result of this policy," Kliesch says. "We ran some numbers and are estimating that this policy will save 1.3 million barrels per day of oil in 2020." This would represent a decrease of nearly 7 percent compared to current US consumption of roughly 19.5 million barrels per day.
[naturenews]
Published online 15 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.912
News
Israeli immigrant scientists protest threat to jobs
Budget cuts freeze researchers out of Israel's KAMEA programme.
By Haim Watzman
The future of an Israeli government programme that funds research positions for 500 immigrant scientists remains in jeopardy — even after the Israeli cabinet reversed a planned budget reduction that would have meant job loss for 200 of the researchers.
The KAMEA programme — a Hebrew acronym for 'Absorption of Immigrant Scientists' — was created in 1998 to take advantage of natural scientists and mathematicians arriving in Israel from the former Soviet Union. The programme, which costs about $40 million annually, funds the base salaries of the scientists as non-tenured academics. Sixty per cent of the money comes from Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, with the rest provided by universities and by the Council for Higher Education, the country's higher education accreditation and funding body.
Although past governments have committed to fund the scientists' salaries until they reach pension age, the programme has often faced crises because the ministry's budget, like that of the other ministries, comes up for renewal every year.
"The problem has been that each year funding for the programme is cut, but is then restored as a part of the coalition agreement with the political party that represents the immigrants," says Zvi HaCohen of Ben-Gurion University, who is chairman of the coordinating council of Israel's university faculty associations.
Cuts in the 2009-2010 budget, approved by the Knesset in mid-July, were slated to eliminate 200 positions. But scientists in the programme and other academics protested against the cuts, demonstrating at the Knesset and signing a petition. The cabinet last week decided to restore funds for 2009 and to establish a ministerial committee to study the programme and find solutions for 2010 and beyond. In the meantime, entry into the programme has been frozen and scientists who reach the retirement age of 67 this year will not be replaced.
In limbo
The freeze creates a bottleneck for dozens of scientists who have come in more recently — mostly from the former Soviet Union, but also from Ethiopia and Argentina — according to Yaniv Cohen-Shabetay, coordinator of university budgeting at the Council for Higher Education. Those scientists are currently funded by other absorption programmes designed to help them get through their first few years, as they learn Hebrew and adjust to the country. The researchers and the senior scientists they work under have assumed that when funding from those programmes ends, the positions would be supported by KAMEA.
"This support has been extremely important for the universities," says Cohen-Shabetay. "The immigrants have helped provide a counterweight to Israel's brain drain in the sciences."
HaCohen notes that at his university between 10 and 12% of the positions in the natural sciences are provided by KAMEA.
His colleague Boris Krasnov arrived in Israel in 1990 at the age of 35, and has been in the programme since its inception. "I've got no tenure, despite my achievements and my position," says Krasnov, who is head of the Institute for Ecology and Environment at Ben-Gurion.
The immigration ministry holds that the the programme should remain in operation, says spokesman Yoash Ben-Itzhak. But the upcoming review, he says, will examine its cost-effectiveness and see whether reforms are needed.
HaCohen says that some of the reforms under consideration could be an earlier retirement age or a continued freeze on new entries. Ben-Itzhak denies that early retirement is on the table.
Immigrant scientists now supported by KAMEA are unlikely to find tenure-track positions at Israel's universities, Cohen-Shabetay says. The universities have had their budgets cut, and many have imposed their own freezes on new hiring.
[naturenews]
Published online 15 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.922
News
Obama proposes greenhouse-gas standards for vehicles
US move is the first national regulation on carbon emissions.
By Jeff Tollefson
The Obama administration released new automobile standards on Tuesday, proposing regulations that would curb greenhouse-gas emissions and ratchet up fuel-efficiency standards beginning in 2012.
Released jointly by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation, the regulations would effectively increase fuel efficiency standards by nearly 40 percent, to more than 35.5 miles per gallon (about 15 kilometres per litre) in 2016. Greenhouse-gas emissions for an automobile company's entire fleet would be limited to an average of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile, which is nearly 30 percent less than the current average.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said the move marks a "significant advance in our work to protect health in the environment and move our nation into the sustainable, energy-efficient economy of the future". She said the new rules would not only reduce emissions and save oil but also result in consumer savings of roughly $3,000 over the lifetime of a vehicle produced in 2016.
The proposal would create a single national standard that is consistent with earlier regulations that were proposed by the state of California but blocked by the administration of former president George W. Bush. Obama reversed that decision this June.
Going national
Administration officials announced the broad outlines of the deal with automakers in May, at a time when the industry was seeking government aid to stay afloat. Both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC ended up filing for bankruptcy, leaving Ford Motor Co. as the only major US automaker standing.
Speaking at a General Motors Co. plant in Lordstown, Ohio, on Tuesday, President Barack Obama asserted that the regulations will give companies "long-overdue clarity, stability and predictability" as they struggle to pull out of a financial tailspin. Michael Stanton, president of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, called the new regulations "a welcome step" toward a single, national programme.
The regulations are rooted in a 2007 Supreme Court finding that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. The Bush administration analyzed the issue in its waning days but eventually elected to defer a final decision.
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson took the first step in April with an "endangerment finding" that would formally declare carbon dioxide a danger to public health and the environment. EPA has yet to finalize that ruling, which could be expanded to include broader greenhouse gas regulations for industrial sources such as power plants and heavy industry.
In its new proposal, the administration issued two separate but complementary standards. The fuel efficiency standards, issued under the Department of Transportation, are slightly less stringent and retain loopholes in the current regulatory system. In particular, manufacturers are allowed to simply pay fines if they fail to meet the standards and to take extra credit for reduced gasoline consumption by 'flex-fuel' vehicles, even though those vehicles seldom run on high-ethanol blends.
But by 2016, automakers will have to comply with the more stringent of the two, which effectively means that the greenhouse gas standards take over, says Jim Kliesch, a senior engineer in the Union of Concerned Scientists' clean vehicles programme in Washington DC. He credits the administration with eliminating both loopholes under the EPA regulations.
In addition to increasing overall fuel efficiency, automakers could improve their air-conditioning systems and opt for new chemical refrigerants that contribute less to global warming. Other improvements will focus on a host of technologies for improving engines and transmissions, many of which are available on various vehicles today.
"I think we are going to see more of these technologies on the showroom floors as a result of this policy," Kliesch says. "We ran some numbers and are estimating that this policy will save 1.3 million barrels per day of oil in 2020." This would represent a decrease of nearly 7 percent compared to current US consumption of roughly 19.5 million barrels per day.
[naturenews]
Published online 15 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.912
News
Israeli immigrant scientists protest threat to jobs
Budget cuts freeze researchers out of Israel's KAMEA programme.
By Haim Watzman
The future of an Israeli government programme that funds research positions for 500 immigrant scientists remains in jeopardy — even after the Israeli cabinet reversed a planned budget reduction that would have meant job loss for 200 of the researchers.
The KAMEA programme — a Hebrew acronym for 'Absorption of Immigrant Scientists' — was created in 1998 to take advantage of natural scientists and mathematicians arriving in Israel from the former Soviet Union. The programme, which costs about $40 million annually, funds the base salaries of the scientists as non-tenured academics. Sixty per cent of the money comes from Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, with the rest provided by universities and by the Council for Higher Education, the country's higher education accreditation and funding body.
Although past governments have committed to fund the scientists' salaries until they reach pension age, the programme has often faced crises because the ministry's budget, like that of the other ministries, comes up for renewal every year.
"The problem has been that each year funding for the programme is cut, but is then restored as a part of the coalition agreement with the political party that represents the immigrants," says Zvi HaCohen of Ben-Gurion University, who is chairman of the coordinating council of Israel's university faculty associations.
Cuts in the 2009-2010 budget, approved by the Knesset in mid-July, were slated to eliminate 200 positions. But scientists in the programme and other academics protested against the cuts, demonstrating at the Knesset and signing a petition. The cabinet last week decided to restore funds for 2009 and to establish a ministerial committee to study the programme and find solutions for 2010 and beyond. In the meantime, entry into the programme has been frozen and scientists who reach the retirement age of 67 this year will not be replaced.
In limbo
The freeze creates a bottleneck for dozens of scientists who have come in more recently — mostly from the former Soviet Union, but also from Ethiopia and Argentina — according to Yaniv Cohen-Shabetay, coordinator of university budgeting at the Council for Higher Education. Those scientists are currently funded by other absorption programmes designed to help them get through their first few years, as they learn Hebrew and adjust to the country. The researchers and the senior scientists they work under have assumed that when funding from those programmes ends, the positions would be supported by KAMEA.
"This support has been extremely important for the universities," says Cohen-Shabetay. "The immigrants have helped provide a counterweight to Israel's brain drain in the sciences."
HaCohen notes that at his university between 10 and 12% of the positions in the natural sciences are provided by KAMEA.
His colleague Boris Krasnov arrived in Israel in 1990 at the age of 35, and has been in the programme since its inception. "I've got no tenure, despite my achievements and my position," says Krasnov, who is head of the Institute for Ecology and Environment at Ben-Gurion.
The immigration ministry holds that the the programme should remain in operation, says spokesman Yoash Ben-Itzhak. But the upcoming review, he says, will examine its cost-effectiveness and see whether reforms are needed.
HaCohen says that some of the reforms under consideration could be an earlier retirement age or a continued freeze on new entries. Ben-Itzhak denies that early retirement is on the table.
Immigrant scientists now supported by KAMEA are unlikely to find tenure-track positions at Israel's universities, Cohen-Shabetay says. The universities have had their budgets cut, and many have imposed their own freezes on new hiring.
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